Horcrux hunt? Me?
by MrsRegulusBlack123
Summary: Nora is a normal 16-year-old girl. When one day she suddenly finds herself thrown into the Harry Potter world, and saves a mysterious guy from the clutches of inferi, she is unwillingly sucked into a Death Eater's mission to destroy his master.
1. The cave

I should be doing my homework.

I eyed the books laid open on my desk. The horror.

Oh but yes… I really should.

I threw a sideway glance at my laptop. No. No. I would not-

Oh, just screw it. One level could do no one harm.

Ignoring my inner voice of reason (as I so often did), I reached out for the laptop on the bed.

I ran a hand through my long blonde hair as I waited for the computer to start up. I looked at my nails, I petted my cat and I shouted at my sister next door to turn the music down.

Arg. Why, oh, why did I have to have such a slow computer?

It finally opened up, almost five minutes later, and I lost no time on fooling around, I scrolled through the favorites and logged in onto my account.

Humming along the theme as I waited for the game to load, I made a silent agreement with myself, just one level, then I'd do my homework.

So as I sat there, hooked on the game, nearing the boss fight, almost having won, WHAM!

Everything went black, and cold. Just when I was going to finally win the damn fight! Unbelievable!

No, I wasn't quite bothered by the fact that the chair under me had disappeared and that I landed on a wet, hard ground. Not yet at least, as I was too busy swearing about having missed probably the best opportunity to level up in a while.

Still grumbling, I looked around me, what the hell?

This wasn't my room… this was a cave, and a creepy one at that, the eerie green glow coming from the island in the middle of the lake didn't help matters much either.

Frowning I tried to see what was going on, I could hear stuff, water splashing, someone gasping for breath… but it was too dark to actually make out anything.

Slowly, and carefully, I crawled over to the lake, there was a white… thing… in there. Squinting, I leaned in closer to get a better look at it, but the moment I did so I let out a yelp of surprise jumping back.

'Holy shit!' Something climbed out, reminding me rather of Samara in the Ring 2 as she climbed out of the well, and tried to get a hold of me. Jumping up, I backed off, _what the hell was that_?

It was a person, that much was clear, but… his skin was deathly white, his clothes, some kind of weird dress that I wouldn't be caught dead in, were torn and, well, soaked. And then there were his eyes, empty, dead.

I shook my head. No, no way, I'd been seeing too many zombie movies lately, it was getting to my head. There was no way, no way in hell, that there was a _zombie _standing in front of me. Taking a glance around I suddenly realized that it wasn't _a_ zombie, but more like a _hundred_ of them.

'Oh shit. You've got to be kidding me…' I muttered and, as my eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, I came to realize that, I actually recognized the cave, from the vague description in a book. A _fiction_ book.

Okay. This was a dream, or rather, a nightmare, had to be. I probably fell asleep on my desk as I was playing, yes, that must've happened.

Still, dream or not, I'd rather not come anywhere near a zombie.

As I took a step back, my eyes darting from the one zombie to the other with caution, I stepped on something, almost resulting in me slipping and falling on my backside. I was about to swear, when I caught sight of what had almost tripped me, a stick, a slender, polished, wooden stick.

An idea popped into my mind, a completely insane idea.

But this was my dream, right? It had to work.

Hoping, begging the gods, for it to be a wand and not some stick just lying around, I ducked to pick it up before running back a bit more, my eyes on the advancing zombies.

What was the word again?

'Who cares about how they're called…! For god's sake!' I scolded myself. The important thing was, that I remembered how they had to be killed, or whatever the hell happened to them, fire. But that was when something else hit me.

'Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. What was the incantation again?' Why didn't I take the time to reread the books? Right, because I never thought I'd actually have to use a _wand_, supposing of course, that this _was_ a wand. 'Oh who cares!' I huffed giving the stick a wave. 'Expulso.' I jumped back, not believing that that had actually worked, there was a big explosion in the lake, water flying everywhere. Right, this wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind, but at least I knew this thing worked. 'R-right… er- Petrificus Totalus!' Oh, it wasn't him I was aiming at, but since it hit one all the same… 'Um, er… come on, a spell…'

I glanced around panicking, trying to force myself to remember a spell, any spell, but the only one I could come up with at the moment, was "Wingardium Leviosa", and that was hardly going to help me in my current situation. But then, as I was panicking myself silly, I caught sight of something else. A person, in the middle of the lake, fighting against another dozen of zombies that were trying to pull him down. And it looked to me like he was loosing. I glanced back and forth between the person in the lake and the zombies advancing on me. I couldn't just leave him, could I? 'S-stupefy!' Ugh, I missed my target once again. 'Er… come on… Snape's spell… er… um, Scourgify! Oh shit.' The lake started to fill with soap bubbles, and I immediately knew I'd used the wrong spell, I was so useless at this. 'Okay, it wasn't Scourgify… ah! Levicorpus!' To my immense relief, the person in the lake was levitated in the air by his ankle, he was gasping for breath, and spitting out soap, but he was at least alive.

Wasting no more time, I turned around and ran off in the direction of the exit, or at least, where I prayed the exit was.

The person, whoever it was, was still dangling in the air, following me, but at least safe from the zombies.

As I stumbled out of the first cave and into another cave, this one zombie-less, thank god, I tried to get the person down, only, I couldn't remember the counter spell, and _he_ certainly seemed in no condition to help me.

Oh come on, why couldn't Bridget be here? My best friend was such a Harry Potter nerd, she'd surely know how to undo this… all she ever did was talk about Sirius Black and the marauders anyway, she'd even written a few fan fictions, if anyone knew how to undo Levicorpus, it'd be her.

'Er… what to do… I can't leave him dangling forever…' I frowned, how could the spell be broken without a counter spell? Glancing at the guy I sighed, alright, it was worth a shot. I threw the stick/wand thing on the ground and the man fell. I grimaced, that must've hurt…

Picking the wand up again, I ran over to him. 'Hey.' I shook him. 'You… hate to bother you… but there's zombies and- and- hey, er... Come on! Wake up dude!' I shook him again and the man grunted, I glanced up, oh, they didn't seem to be able to reach this part of the cave, still, the further away from here, the better, the problem was, I had no idea where on the green earth I was.

'My wand…' He suddenly croaked snapping me out of my thoughts.

'Huh? Wha- oh, wand, yes, here.' I shoved the piece of wood in his hand and grabbed a hold of his black… robes… 'Now get us out of here!' I cried, near to hysterics, as I shook him. Reaching out, he grabbed my arm and I had the time to let out a yelp as I was overcome by this horrible feeling.

Like I was being pushed through a rubber tube much too small for me, pressed from all sides, I felt like I was gonna explode and then-

Nothing.


	2. Regulus Black

_Reaching out, he grabbed my arm and I had the time to let out a yelp as I was overcome by this horrible feeling._

_Like I was being pushed through a rubber tube much too small for me, pressed from all sides, I felt like I was gonna explode and then-_

_Nothing._

My legs gave in and fell on my knees, feeling as though I might be sick. I let myself sink to the ground, fighting a wave of nausea.

What the bloody hell had just happened?

Lifting my head just a bit, I turned my gaze on the guy lying next to me.

He looked like hell.

Though, considering we'd just come face to face with hundreds of zombies, I could hardly blame him, I probably looked about just as bad, if not worse. I was, after all, standing (or rather lying) here in my light blue pjs, which were covered in dirt, from getting landed in that blasted cave… and it didn't look like it'd get out easily either, mum would throw a fit if she saw this.

Luckily though, this was a dream, had to be, I'd hate to have to throw my pjs away, after all, they'd been quite expensive, not to mention, a present.

Huh, I seemed to have lost a slipper as well.

In what kind of a dream did you lose a shoe? I'd never dreamt of losing a shoe before… My sister, Lizzie, would say it had something to with my subconscious fears.

But what was I to make out of that? That I was afraid of losing my shoes? And what was with the cave and the zombies, not to mention, the mystery guy, whose name I still did not know (and quite honestly I didn't care either), what were all those supposed to mean?

Mum would say that I spent too many hours in front of the TV, which was probably true too.

Sighing, I decided I might as well stop losing time and try to find a way to wake myself up, if mum came in and she found me asleep in front of my computer, she'd surely confiscate it. Especially if my homework was still lying around unfinished, which it of course was.

It was only as I sat up that I came to realize how big the room we were in actually was. It had to be four times the size of my bedroom. Whoa.

The walls were adorned in green and silver, Slytherin colors, and the whole room had a kind of dark feel to it…

Another reason to get the hell back to reality, this house, no matter how big, and possibly luxurious, was creepy.

But my plans were interrupted as the guy suddenly spoke.

'Who are you?' He croaked and I all but jumped, having completely forgotten about his presence in the room.

As I turned to look at him, I found him standing, his wand pointed at me. I might've felt intimidated if it wasn't for him having to lean onto the table for support.

He seemed in an even worse state now that he was actually standing, he must've been feeling like hell, I knew I would've. 'I asked you who you are. How did you find me?'

'Whoa, relax, no need to poke my eye out.' And seeing no harm in revealing my name to a fracture of my imagination, I added. 'I'm Nora.'

'Nora what?' He demanded.

'Newman.' He seemed to ponder over my name for a while, which I used to pull myself up. His eyes never left me, his wand trained on me.

'That's not a pureblood name.' He finally concluded.

'Well, no. I'm what you'd call a muggle, now, if you'll excuse me, I need to wake up.' He looked at me raising an eyebrow. Surprisingly, pinching didn't do the trick, weird, because that usually worked. I was debating on whether or not it'd be a good idea to try and slap myself when he spoke again.

'You used magic, earlier, in the cave.'

'Well, duh, that's because I'm dreaming, isn't it? I'd never be able to pick up a stick, mumble out some words and actually get an effect if I were awake.'

'You're not asleep.'

'Yes I am. I'm dreaming and you're a fictional character.'

'What? Of course not!'

'Please. I think I'd know if I were a witch out of Harry Potter land.'

'Who?' Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

'Harry Potter. The-boy-who-lived? Ring any bells? The one who defeated Voldemo- hey! What the-' I pushed his wand out of my face.

'Don't say the Dark Lord's name!'

'Oh for god's sake! It's a name! And this is a dream anyway.' I then paused. 'Hold on, you said… Dark Lord. You're a Death Eater?'

'Was. I was a Death Eater.'

'Just my luck. Instead of dreaming of someone funny and actually worth getting grounded for once mum wakes me, like the Weasley twins for instance, I get stuck with an _ex-_Death Eater.' I sighed. 'And how is that even possible? All ex-Death Eaters mentioned in the books are dead. Volde- you-know-who killed them.' I concluded eyeing the wand that had sprung up as I'd almost said "Voldemort" warily.

'I was supposed to die as well, I certainly thought I would.' He admitted, then turned to face me. 'How did you find me? I thought I was the only one that knew of the cave.' I couldn't help but snort at that.

'Honestly? There's probably more than a million that do. They're just in reality, not Harry Potter dreamland.' I heard the guy groan and turned to look at him inquiringly.

'Will anything I tell you convince you this isn't a dream?'

'Nope, because, one moment I'm sitting at home, next I'm being attacked by zombies, in a cave, with a guy drowning in the lake. How do you explain that if not a dream?' However, I got no answer, for he was looking at me confused.

'Zombies? What's a zombies?'

'Honestly? You don't know?' He gave me a look clearly saying "should I?" 'The corpses that tried to kill us? You know? In the lake? The one you were not supposed to touch if you didn't want to end up dead?'

'The inferi?' I paused for a moment, yes, I'd heard the term before.

'Yes, I guess that's how J.K. Rowling called them.'

'Who's J.K. Rowling?'

'The one who wrote the Harry Potter series? You know, the one who wrote you.' I jabbed my index finger against his chest for emphasis on the "you" part.

'For the last time, this is not a dream. And I'm not a fictional character…!'

'Believe what you will. I'm going to sit-' I plopped down in an armchair. '-here and wait to be awoken.' The guy groaned.

'Okay, whatever, I don't really care.' He made to leave, but wobbled, for some reason, too weak, and had I not jumped up to stop it, he'd have fallen. 'Thanks. Damn potion.' He muttered, almost too low for me to hear. I turned to look at him.

'Potion? What- oh… you-you drank that?' I asked, realization having struck me at long last, I turned to look at the guy I was guiding upstairs, just a few years older than me. His hair black, his eyes grey. The dots started connecting and I cursed myself for not realizing earlier when it was so obvious. He looked like Sirius had been described in the books and he was an ex-Death Eater… he'd been in the cave, it fit. I turned to look at him, abruptly coming to a stop. 'You- you're Sirius Black's brother!' I exclaimed, a hint of pride for figuring it out in my voice. 'Reg- Reg- Reginald Black! Er… no, that wasn't it…'

'Regulus.'

'Regulus, yes, yes, that was it…' I said, more to myself rather than Regulus (who named their child Regulus anyway? No wonder I couldn't remember it).

'There.' Regulus said nodding at a door. I glanced at him and nodded back, helping him inside and to the bed. 'Take any room you want, no one's going to come barging in anyway… no one's been to this vacation home since I was a kid.'

'Oh, okay…' Nodding, I left the room, silently closing the door behind my back before proceeding to look for a room that wasn't too gloomy, creepy or dark. Which was a hard task, all rooms were like that.

Sighing, I just settled on the third one to the right, it at least _looked_ like someone had lived in there.

There were a few magazines with moving pictures scattered on the ground and the curtains were actually drawn open, something that I hadn't seen in any of the other rooms so far.

It was dark outside, but there was clearly a street outside, it was empty though, not a soul outside. Then again, if, as according to the clock, it really was three in the morning, I shouldn't be surprised.

As my eyes fell on the king-sized bed (which was green as well), I realized how tired I was.

Yawning, I plopped down on the bed.

Tomorrow, I'd wake up to find this was all a dream.

With that though in my head, I closed my eyes, fast asleep.


	3. Horcruxes

I sighed as I laid on the bed, still too sleepy to even open my eyes, I hated mornings. What did we need them for anyway? They were a bloody menace.

Yawning, I rolled over burying my head under the pillow. Knowing mum, she'd probably barge in here to force me up soon anyway.

Today was Monday. I groaned. Worst day of the week.

If there were two things I could absolutely not tolerate it had to be mornings and Mondays. Though waffles weren't far behind either. I really didn't get why Lizzie liked them so much…

Yes, I wasn't much of a morning person.

Still refusing to open my eyes I ran a hand through my hair, I had had a funny dream last night… I dreamt was in the Harry Potter world with a guy who refused to believe he was a fictional character. Absurd. As if it could actually be real.

I heard the door creak open and sighed, and there was mum, coming to wake me up. I heard the small, light footsteps make their way over to me, weird, my bed wasn't all that far from the door, and her footsteps sounded too light, she usually barged in and demanded me to get up, her voice hoarse after having shouted the same thing from downstairs half a dozen times before.

Ignoring it, I pretended to be asleep, even though that, after sixteen-years, I knew she wouldn't let me sleep on.

'Miss?' I felt someone shaking me lightly. 'Miss?'

I was about to reply with the usual "five more minutes, mum", when something occurred to me, that wasn't my mum's voice. And since when did she call me Miss anyway?

I slowly opened my brown eyes only to look right into a pair of big bright green ones. I blinked.

'Jesus Christ!' I yelped, jumping back, accidentally losing my balance and landing on the ground with a _thud_. The creature scrambled to get to the other side of the bed and peered down at me.

'Is Miss alright? Poppy apologizes for scaring Miss.'

'What the hell?' She made to take a step towards me and I scrambled back against the wall. 'Whoa! Don't come any closer!'

She, Poppy, stopped and we spent a second in silence as I examined the big, bat-like ears, long nose and tennis ball-sized eyes. Was that a pillowcase she was wearing?

_Crack!_

'Holy shit!' I stared in disbelief as a second creature appeared, quite literally, out of nowhere.

'Did Poppy wake the Miss up?' It asked turning to look at Poppy who in turn nodded.

'Poppy did, but-'

'What are you screaming for so early in the morning?' I looked up with a start to see the guy from the night before, Regulus, standing in the doorway.

He looked better now, maybe it was the fact he was dry now, or possibly because he had gotten some sleep. Either way, he looked healthier.

'Young master Regulus! Welcome back!' Poppy exclaimed as both of them bowed before offering an explanation. 'Poppy was just waking the miss up, but miss panicked.'

'Well of course I panicked! Anyone would! I woke up to- to…! I don't even know what I woke up to! What are they?' Regulus raised an eyebrow.

'House-elves.' He said as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

'House-elves… right… how ever didn't I realize.' I muttered sarcastically, turns out I wasn't awake after all.

I was still in the dark room I fell asleep in and Regulus Black was still hanging around. Not to mention, now two house-elves had been added to the picture. This just kept getting worse.

I sighed as I followed Regulus to the sitting room, the house-elves having left to prepare breakfast.

I plopped down in the black sofa letting my eyes wander around.

'Where are we anyway?' I finally asked. Sirius' house? Or some other manor?

'A vacation house.' Regulus responded simply, having now seated himself in an armchair. 'In Paris.' My jaw dropped.

'We're in France?' I'd always dreamed of going to Paris! Oh the shops! The fashion! The- oh man. I had no money on me. I groaned.

'It was the only place I could think of.' He continued, ignoring my interruption. 'Couldn't return to London after all…'

'Why?' He turned to look at me, probably surprised by my bluntness. After studying me for a while, debating whether or not I was to be trusted, he spoke.

'Lets just say I did something that the Dark Lord wouldn't appreciate.' He chuckled darkly and I nodded.

'Right, the horcrux.' Regulus' eyes widened and he dropped the glass of coffee the house-elves had brought him. He didn't seem to notice though, for his eyes glued on me, wide and disbelieving.

'You-wha- how-' He spluttered like that for a moment before managing to get out what he wanted to say. 'You know about that?'

'Well of course I know about the locket. That's the one Ron destroyed, isn't it?' I asked, more to myself rather than Regulus. 'Right, before they went after the cup…' I nodded, yes, I remembered that bit.

'Cup? What are you talking about? Who's Ron?'

'Harry's best friend.' I answered nonchalantly, accepting the bowl with cornflakes from Poppy the house elf. 'And the cup's obviously another horcrux.' Regulus didn't say anything, just looked at me stunned, so I took my spoon and started eating.

'He-he has two…?' He finally choked out, looking pale.

'No, he said something about seven in the Half-blood Prince… but I think that would mean six, since one part of his soul has to stay with him.'

'Six? He… wants to make _six_ horcruxes…?' Regulus asked in a whisper looking as though he might be sick. 'How do you know this?'

'I already told you, didn't I? The Harry Potter series, my best friend's obsessed with them and insisted I read them.'

'These… these books… they're about-'

'Harry, and his years at Hogwarts.'

'Harry Potter, right? You mentioned him last night as well.'

'Yeah, he's the main character, really daft sometimes, but he's fine otherwise…'

'Any relation to James Potter?' I snorted.

'His son.'

'Potter doesn't have a son.'

'Maybe not yet.' I shrugged. 'He will. And anyway this isn't-'

'Don't.' He cut me out and I frowned. 'Just- for a moment- say this is not a dream, alright? You're awake and this is real. What's all this about some books, Potter's son and the Dark Lord having six horcruxes?' I sighed. Pinching the bridge of my nose I turned to look at Regulus.

'Fine.'

So I told him.

About Harry, about Voldemort and about the books.

I explained how James and Lilly were murdered while Harry went to live with the Dursleys, how Sirius Black got framed by Pettigrew and thrown into Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit.

I told him about the triwizard tournament and Voldemort's return. His horcruxes and, lastly, his demise.

There was a silence in which I took the time to examine the young man in front of me.

Sirius had mentioned he died young, but now, actually seeing him in front of me, I realized just how young. Just two years older than myself. Eighteen.

'So… if what you're saying is true…' Regulus turned to look at me. 'The Dark Lord won't completely die until we've destroyed all the horcruxes, and only we know about them…' He ran a hand through his black hair, and even though his eyes were on me, his mind was lost in thought. 'That also explains why you thought you were dreaming…' I raised an eyebrow.

'It does?' He nodded.

'If you were from a parallel universe, where our world doesn't exist… if you got transported here somehow… it's quite possible, I've read about it.' I eyed him, my eyebrows raised.

'You know what? You're crazy.' Ignoring me he went on about parallel universes and a bunch of terms I'd never heard of before, so, losing interest, I tuned him out.

It wasn't until a while later, when he said _that_, that I was snapped out of my daydreaming.

'We're going after them.' I blinked, turning to look at Regulus.

'I'm sorry?'


	4. Gregorovitch

I tried to talk him out of it, it was ridiculous, stupid and a suicide mission. Me? Hunting Horcruxes? Absurd.

'And besides' I tried yet again 'I'm a muggle, remember?'

'You used magic in the cave.' He pointed out brushing my words aside as he sat in his armchair, calmly drinking some tea Poppy had brought him.

'That was… er… well it wasn't magic.' Regulus raised an eyebrow.

'And what was it then, if it wasn't magic?'

'Er- well- I… an adrenaline rush.'

'An adrenaline rush?' Regulus snorted. 'You're a horrible liar, you know that, Nora?'

'Well I think I'd know if I was capable of doing magic, thank you very much.' I crossed my arms. 'And I'll have you know that, in all my sixteen years of life, I have never before performed any kind of magic.' Regulus was skeptical for a while, and for a moment, I believed to have won the argument, but that was when he spoke again.

'Well… I suppose that if magic wasn't possible in that parallel universe you-' I groaned, there he went again.

'I'm not from a parallel universe. I'm dreaming.' I said though it was more myself that I was trying to convince rather than Regulus. This was taking an awfully long time to be a dream, but I refused to believe that this was actually real.

Regulus sighed and dropped the matter, we'd already had a number of fights over which theory was correct, and none of us was in the mood for another one quite yet.

'Okay, lets test it out then.' I turned to look at the black haired guy. He removed his wand from inside his robes and turned it around, holding it out in my direction. 'Take it and perform a spell.' I raised an eyebrow. 'Do it.' Sighing, I took the piece of wood and stared at it.

'What do I do?'

'Give it a wave, but don't point at any windows, Sirius managed to shatter them once that way…'

'A wave?'

'Just give it a try, wingardium leviosa or something equally easy.' Eyeing Regulus for a few seconds I sighed and, feeling kind of stupid, turned to the teacup on the table.

I gave the wand a wave, being oddly reminded of Emma Watson saying _"just swish and flick" _in the first Harry Potter movie, and, not expecting much, muttered the incantation.

To my surprise, the teacup rose and hovered in the air before me disbelieving eyes, wow.

It was really getting to me now, I was in Harry Potter land and, dream or not, I could do magic, wicked.

I lowered the cup back to the table and turned to Regulus who smirked at me in a "told you so" way.

We set off that afternoon, Regulus in his black robes and cloak (the house elves had washed them last night) and me in some ancient-looking green robes that were still lying around in the house. Regulus had said they belonged to his aunt, Druella.

Well, despite their horrid appearance, they at least kept one warm. I frowned as I stood next to Regulus.

'Do we have to?' I asked, not at all eager to experience apparition again after only a few days. Why someone would bother learning something as painful, even if it was a fast way of travel, was beyond me.

'Well, we can hardly get back to London the muggle way, right? And I'm not about to let you floo wandless, imagine you popping out at the wrong house…' I groaned, yeah, I'd have a grand time explaining.

'Yeah, but what if… what if I get splinched or something?'

'You didn't get splinched when I apparated us away from the cave, and I was in a much worse condition back then…'

'Well yes, but-'

'Oh just stop worrying, I passed my second apparition test with flying colors.' Before I could get to ask "why second?", Regulus grabbed my arm and I had the time to squeeze my eyes shut we apparated.

'A warning wouldn't have killed you, you know…!' I hissed leaning back against the wall. I breathed in and out slowly, trying to push down the feeling of nausea.

'Sorry.' He grinned slightly. Letting out a sigh I turned to where Regulus was standing. The house towering in front of us was giving me the creeps. I gave the ex-Death Eater a sideway glance, we wouldn't need to enter there, would we?

Catching sight of the number of the house I groaned. 12. Great.

'Mother should be out, so it'll only be Kreacher.' I nodded, that at least was good, no raging, crazy Walburga Black to storm down the stairs and interrupt us. The less time we spent inside 12 Grimmauld Place, the better.

Regulus pointed his wand at the door and muttered something, unlocking it. Then he turned to me.

'You better stay out here, it's warded against muggleborns and I haven't figured out what you are quite yet…' I nodded, I was perfectly content with just getting a look at the house from where I was standing.

Regulus entered and I stared after him until his figure was no longer visible.

I glanced at my watch.

Five minutes. What was taking so long? It was getting cold. Inching closer, I peered inside. Nothing. I glanced at my watch again. It could all be nothing, just me being paranoid…

Ten minutes. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair glancing back at the door again… was he ever planning on getting back, I wasn't a patient person, and I was getting irritated.

Fifteen.

'Okay, that does it. I'm going in there.' I grumbled marching over to the door and pushing it open, then, however, I hesitated.

Regulus had said something about wards against muggleborns… what category did I fall into? And, if I _was_ considered a muggleborn… what would the wards do if I stepped inside? I eyed the hallway cautiously for another moment. Okay, now or never. Sprinting forward, I ran inside, my eyes closed. I waited there for a moment, but nothing happened, so I dared open an eye.

No lightning bold had hit me. Phew.

Taking a quick look around, I decided to just go find Regulus.

I headed down the hall, tripping over the troll leg as I did so and throwing it over with a loud _clang_.

'Ah…' Damn. I'd make a horrid spy. Careful not to make any more noise, I picked the thing up and pushed it aside.

'Who's there?' I started and looked up, only to be blinded by a bright light. 'Nora?' Regulus lowered his wand and sighed. 'I thought you were- never mind.' He turned around and I hurriedly followed.

Taking a look around the new room, I supposed this was the drawing room, Regulus was kneeling in front of a tapestry, pointing his wand at it and muttered all sorts of incantations.

I got a bit closer and noticed a really ugly house-elf looking at me suspiciously from behind an armchair.

'Don't mind Kreacher.' Regulus said getting up. 'There, we can go now.'

'Wha-' I turned to look at the tapestry, now that he'd gotten up, I could see what he'd been working on. 'You… gave yourself a death date…?'

'Yes…' Regulus ran a hand through his hair and sighed. 'I can't afford the Dark Lord to come after mother, or anyone else in the family. I will soon be declared a traitor, if I'm not already that is, they'll come after me, and when they don't find me, they'll go after family…' He explained as we left the house. 'If they think I've died…' I nodded.

'Yeah…' Regulus put the big golden locket he was holding away and turned to me, holding out his hand for me to take.

I frowned, but took the hand anyway, letting him side-along apparate me for the second time today.

'God… horrible. And I thought going somewhere by car was bad… but this is definitely worse than being carsick.' I glanced at Regulus, he seemed perfectly fine, as if he hadn't just felt like he was being squeezed to death by thick rubber bands. Horrible.

'Come on.' Regulus said and pushed the door of the shop open. I followed him inside, looking around as Regulus headed for the man behind the counter, Gregorovitch, I assumed.

Regulus' first choice had been Ollivander's, but for obvious reasons, that option had been ruled out, and I absolutely needed a wand, or so Regulus had said.

I didn't really know how to feel, I still believed that it looked a bit silly to you wove a wand around like some kind of a retard… then again, I hadn't seen any really fancy spells either, my own levitating spell and a cleaning spell or two, was all.

'-yes.' Regulus was saying. I turned to look at him and walked over to the ex-Death Eater. 'Her old wand snapped, you see…'

'Ah yes… and you want a new one made?' Regulus nodded. 'I'll need to know the core and-'

'Oh, no, a new wand if you could, it had been our Great aunt's…'

'Ah, yes, then…' The man, Gregorovitch, stepped away from the counter and told me to follow him, Regulus had to give me a push for me to actually do so. 'Hmm… lets see…' I bit my lip, opting to look at something else instead of the wandmaker. My eyes wandered to all the wands on the shelves, there had to be hundreds of them. 'Aha. Here you go, 12 inches, olive tree and dragon heartstring.' Gregorovitch held out a wand for me and I eyed it for a moment or two before taking it, Bridget would be going green with envy if she knew about this, she'd always wanted to be a witch. When we were younger she'd gather sticks and insist we play Harry Potter… 'Miss? Miss!'

'Huh? Wha- oh, right, yeah, sorry…' Remembering the wand in my hand I gave it a wave.

_BOOM!_

'Jesus Christ!' I exclaimed jumping back. Oh my, I'd just exploded a bookcase. 'Sorry about that…'

Gregorovitch just took the wand away and gave me a new one, that one inflaming the carpet when I tried it out.

Quickly snatching it away, he passed me the next.

And on it went. The one wand after the other. I was starting to think it was hopeless (if this went on for much longer the place would cave in), when Gregorovich handed me my 36th wand.

11 inches, rosewood and unicorn hair.

The moment I held it, I knew.

I didn't know how, but I just knew, this was the one, the wand.

It was different from holding Regulus' wand.

I'd never imagined it to be possible for two wands to feel differently when you held them, a wand was a wand, right? But now I understood, it was completely different, it wasn't something I could explain, it was just something I knew. I felt it, as I held the piece of polished wood.

I turned to Gregorovitch, he nodded.

'The wand is yours.'

'Thanks…' I murmured as we returned to Regulus, who had taken out a few round golden coins. I stood there holding my wand like an idiot for a while, before Regulus nudged me and we left the shop.

Upon getting outside, I pocketed my wand and turned to Regulus.

'Ready?' I nodded and took his hand.

With a loud _pop_ we were gone.


	5. Relatives join the hunt

It didn't take me long to find out that magic wasn't as easy as it looked, and even with my head start (though, really, it wasn't much of a head start with my horrid memory) there were all sorts of wrist movements and incantations that went together. Get either of them wrong, and the effects might be disastrous.

I almost had a heart attack when, instead of "tarantallegra", my memory failed me and I said "tatantallegra", somehow exploding the portrait of some Lucretia one-or-the-other.

The woman had been out visiting her husband, whose portrait was in the library, and threw a fit when she came back to find her portrait exploded, didn't shut up until after midnight, when Regulus had finally had enough and cast a silencing spell on the mad cow.

But, I found out, the worst by far, was apparition.

'Come on Nora, it isn't that difficult if you concentrate, just remember, determination, destination and-'

'Deliberation. Yes, yes, you told me that the last fifty times as well. The thing is, _it just isn't working_!'

'Okay, you know what? Just relax a bit for now, we'll go on tomorrow, it's late anyway.'

Sighing I put my wand away, this was just hopeless, if I ever needed a quick getaway, I was doomed, I hadn't managed to move as much as a nanometer, and how long had I been practicing? Three hours? Four?

At least my progress was going better with spell work, I was pretty good at the stunning spell, they'd be knocked out for hours Regulus had said, that is, if I managed to hit my target.

For no matter how good or powerful my spells were, if I didn't learn to aim properly, I'd be as good as dead in a duel with a thirteen-year-old, not to mention a Death Eater.

It was depressing.

And to think I had to be able to at least defend myself against one person at a time in three weeks time… it was impossible, I was just too horrible at it.

Regulus looked up from the potion he'd been stirring and turned to me.

'Nora?'

'It's useless.' I groaned. 'There's no way I'll be ready in only three weeks, you've had seven years…'

'You're still going on about that?' Regulus sighed. 'I told you before that you're doing great, a lot better than I'd have expected someone that's never used a wand before in any case.'

'Are you kidding me? I was aiming at the armchair and instead I set the curtains on fire, the ones worth 87 galleons, as your aunt won't stop reminding me.'

'Lucretia's like that with everyone, don't take it to heart, it's just how she is. You had to see her when Sirius and I broke that priceless set of teacups of hers a few years back.'

'I can imagine…' I muttered as I played with my wand. I'd taken to doing that lately, it was sort of addictive. 'So, how's the polyjuice potion coming along, anyway?'

'As it should be, the lacewing flies need to be added tomorrow.' He added to Poppy, the house-elf, who nodded, she'd been in charge of the potion when Regulus couldn't due to training me. Running a hand through his black hair, Regulus pulled the locket out of his pocket. 'We still need to find a way to destroy this, I'm fairly sure it needs to be opened first though…'

'Don't waste your energy on it.' I said trying to stifle a yawn, man, practicing magic like this really left me exhausted… 'Unless you're a parselmouth without my knowledge, you're not going to succeed.'

'What?' I looked up. Oh shit, I'd forgotten to mention that, hadn't I?

'Well, er, yes… basically…'

'Anything else you know and forgot to share?'

'Hey! It's not my fault…! I just remembered it now.'

'Well, either way, that adds another problem to our never-ending list of problems… just great.' Regulus let out a sigh. 'And we still need to somehow steal Godric Gryffindor's sword from right under Dumbledore's nose…'

'Yes, well, I still don't know which is worse, the break-into-Gringotts-pretending-to-be-Rodolphus-Lestrange idea, or the steal-Riddle's-dairy-from-the-Malfoys idea.'

'I won't be _breaking in_, I'll just… be paying a visit lets say. Besides, you don't need to worry, _you_'ll be looking for the ring at the Gaunts' house, so just focus on learning how to apparate and leave me to worry about how I'll get the cup.'

'Right, but I think… we could do it without Gryffindor's sword… I mean, the tiara, or however that thing of Ravenclaw's was called' "diadem" Regulus interfered 'right, that was destroyed by that fire that aguamenti couldn't put out, how was it called again?'

'Fiendfyre.'

'Yes, that.'

'Well, it is an option, but I doubt either of us could control it, so that leaves only the sword.'

'Yes, but the thing is, the reason for which the horcruxes could be destroyed with the sword in the books, was because of the basilisk venom it had… er, well, absorbed or whatever, but the problem is-'

'That didn't happen until 1992... right.' Regulus said catching up.

'Exactly.'

'So that leaves us with nothing to destroy the horcruxes…'

'Pretty much.'

'Well, actually-' The voice made me jump, and, in a matter of seconds, we had our wands out and pointed at the… portrait? 'Hey, relax, it's just me…' The man said raising his arms a bit in a peace gesture.

'Uncle Alphard?'

'That's right. How have you been my boy? A lot better than the tapestry suggests, I see.'

'This isn't a laughing matter Alphard.' A second voice said stiffly as another person stepped into the portrait. He looked a lot like Alphard and Regulus, but then again, all Black men looked like each other.

'Dad?' Regulus had now gotten up and I followed him to the portrait to get a better look at the two men.

'Your mother has been mad with grief you know… I have never seen Walburga quite like that, not even when Sirius ran away…' The man, Orion Black I assumed, shook his head sadly.

'She's worse than-'

'Well of course Regulus…! What did you expect? She thinks her son is dead.'

A silence followed as Regulus looked down, it had been hard for him as well, I could tell, but he was doing it to protect her and Sirius, and until all this was over, she'd have to stay in the dark.

It was kind of weird, really, as Sirius had made them sound in the books, you'd suppose his parents were horrible, inhuman people, but Orion Black certainly didn't look the part and, from what they'd said about her, neither did Walburga.

They just sounded like ordinary parents…

'Why are you here talking about something as horrid as horcruxes while everyone thinks you're dead anyway, son?' Orion asked snapping me out of my thoughts.

'They're obviously planning to destroy one, Orion. The real question should be _whose_ horcrux they're planning on destroying.' I grimaced.

'Not horcrux, horcrux_es_.' Both men turned to look at me wide-eyed.

'Horcrux_**es**_? As in plural? Merlin's beard!'

'Who could be so… so _inhuman_ to create more than one?'

'The Dark Lord.' Regulus said grimly.

'The Dark Lord? But-'

'We were wrong dad. He's a mad lunatic, he doesn't care about blood purity, only power. He's made five horcruxes! _Five_!'

'Five?' Both Alphard and Orion had paled a considerable amount and looked like they were going to be sick, and I couldn't really blame them, during my time here I'd gotten my hands on a book about horcruxes and I'd felt like puking before I even reached the second page. They really were horrible things.

'And that's not all of it. The man leading the crusade against muggles and mudbloods, is half muggle himself.'

'The Dark Lord… a half-blood…!' Orion gasped.

'His name was Tom Riddle.' I spoke up and the man's eyes widened in recognition, it seemed like he'd known Voldemort in his school years.

'We're going to destroy him dad, we know where all his horcruxes are, we've even got one already. And I'm sorry if I'm going against your hopes and whishes by this, but I cannot let a madman like the Dark Lord roam free.' Orion Black swallowed, seemingly still processing all the truths about the man he'd looked up to half his lifetime, then he nodded.

'No, you are right. Someone like Riddle can't continue to roam free.' He finally said. 'You are doing the right thing son, and until you are done, your uncle and I will aid you in any way we can.' Alphard nodded and for the first time, I saw Regulus smile, truly smile.

It was just then that I realized how strikingly handsome he was.

It made a weird feeling rise in my stomach, his smile.


	6. The locket

'Are you sure this is going to work?' Regulus asked examining the silver dagger he was holding.

I turned to look at the portrait of Orion Black, who was momentarily sharing with his brother-in-law, much to his annoyance.

In the few days I'd gotten to know them, one thing had become absolutely clear, Orion and Alphard Black rarely ever got along.

They were just too different.

While Alphard liked taking it easy and joking around, Orion was serious and liked to have a tight schedule where everything went according to plan.

They fought daily, and let me tell you, being awoken to a pair of screaming Blacks, was not my thought of the ideal way to start the day. Man, they sure had a strong pair of lungs, and to imagine Regulus said that was nothing compared to when his mother fought with Sirius, if that was true, it was a miracle Grimmauld Place was still standing…

But the worst of it all was probably when they tried to partake in my training, it was a complete disaster.

They just sat there, in their portrait, disagreeing about which the best way to block a curse was, shouting out advises of all kinds, oblivious to the fact that the only thing they actually did, was make it harder for me to concentrate.

At first I'd thought talking portraits to be cool, but now I knew the truth, they were a bloody menace.

'It's goblin-made, like the sword of Gryffindor.' Orion said interrupting my thoughts. 'Merlin knows how many times they tried to claim we stole it. Hah, as if. It's been in the family for centuries.'

'_Well, I do_ recall it being said that the first owner stole it from a goblin, if you remember, Orion.' Alphard interjected. Orion opened his mouth, undoubtedly to counter the other wizard's statement, and recognizing a situation the could lead to yet another fight between the two Blacks, I decided to put an end to it.

'Who cares if it's stolen or not, we're nothing with it if we don't have the basilisk venom.' The men turned to look at me. 'And I doubt you have a basilisk handy in the backyard.'

'Even the Blacks aren't _that_ crazy.' Regulus said chuckling. 'But I think I know a place where we can find basilisk venom…'

'You do?'

**XXX**

I kept looking around as we walked down the crowded streets of London.

It was greatly different from how I was used to it, but then again, as I had to keep reminding myself, this was in the 70s, so I wasn't even born yet.

Damn, this was messed up.

'Come on, this is it.' I heard Regulus say and looked up, we were standing outside a shabby looking place, the Leaky Cauldron, I assumed.

I felt the excitement rise inside me, I had wanted to come here for a while (what Harry Potter fan wouldn't?), but Regulus had said it'd be too dangerous.

Now though, it was him that had suggested this in the first place.

Pulling my cloak closer to my body, I followed Regulus inside the pub.

There weren't a lot of people inside, some heads turned at the sound of the door opening, but seeing no one they recognized, they lost interest and continued doing whatever they had been doing before we came in.

Regulus led me to a room and I watched as he pulled his wand out, tapping the right brick in order for the archway to open up.

Damn, no matter how many times I saw it, a blonde Regulus just seemed wrong.

I knew it was just a glamour spell (after all, we'd have a hard time explaining why someone who was supposed to be dead was strolling down Diagon Alley), but seeing Regulus with blonde curly hair made me want to gag.

Not that I had anything against blond hair, I was blonde myself after all, but on Regulus it looked all wrong, he was still handsome, it wasn't that, it just… didn't fit… I couldn't really explain it.

My mind was, however, completely taken off Regulus' hair color as we entered the alley.

My jaw dropped.

Sure, it had been described as an amazing place in the books… but actually seeing it…

All the shops, all the people, all the magic.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to actually check out a bookstore.

But seeing all those books, big, small, thick, thin with moving pictures, charms and hexes in them… who wouldn't? Even I, who got sick at the very mention of a library (usually because it was associated with schoolwork), wanted to take a look inside.

Sadly though, as Regulus reminded me while he pulled me away from a comic with moving pictures on display, that wasn't what we were here for.

It didn't stop me from "aaahing" and "ooohing" at every little thing along the way though.

'Honestly…' Regulus sighed giving me a sideways glance as I stared at a self-stirring cauldron in awe. 'You're such a kid.'

'Well sorry, but I'll remind you this is my first time here, it's only natural to get sidetracked a bit…' I said straightening up.

'A bit, yeah, but you've been stopping to look at things every few seconds.' I huffed, confidently striding down the alley, planning on proving him wrong, but that was before my eyes fell on _Quality Quidditch Supplies_.

'Oh. My. God.' I exclaimed. 'That's right! If I'm magical, I bet I can fly a broom! Can you teach me?'

'Nora.'

'Oh, right, got sidetracked, sorry.' Heaving another sigh, Regulus motioned me to follow him.

As we walked on down the smaller alley, I didn't fail to notice how everything seemed to get darker and darker the further we went. Also, the objects on display became creepier by the second, and the fact that it was going to be dark soon, didn't help in the slightest.

I instinctively moved closer to Regulus, knowing that this was a place I would never want to set a foot in alone.

Imagining Harry, only a twelve-year-old, alone in this place after popping out in the wrong fireplace sent a shiver down my spine.

After a few minutes of walking, during which I'd all but glued myself to Regulus, we finally came to a stop. I looked up at the shop we were about to enter.

'Borgin and Burkes?' Regulus nodded.

'Come on.' He opened the door and we got inside. It was even darker than it had been outside, not to mention, a whole lot creepier.

I cautiously eyed the cursed necklace on display and from that, my eyes moved on to what looked suspiciously like a collection of human bones.

Good god.

This really was no place for a kid. Molly knew what she was talking about in the second book, and to think Fred and George had wanted to sneak inside this place…

I quickly followed Regulus further inside the shop, having spotted a hangman's rope a few meters away from where I'd previously been standing. This place was giving me goose bumps, what kind of a sane person would come here willingly? And take his twelve-year-old son with him, nonetheless? Was Lucius crazy?

'Don't touch anything.' Regulus whispered in my ear. I eyed the collection of things on the shelf, as if I'd have any desire to…

I made sure to keep my distance from the man, Borgin, as he emerged from behind some big wooden doors.

He didn't seem like the kind you'd want to have anything to do with, and, as a matter of fact, I was planning on putting as much distance between us as possible.

I let Regulus deal with him, opting to look out of the window instead.

The sky was dark already, and I didn't fancy walking through those streets again, even if Regulus was going to be with me.

Guess I never was much of a brave person, I didn't have a problem admitting that, picking dare instead of truth was probably as far as my courage could take me.

I had never really thought of what I was getting myself into when I agreed on this, who was I kidding?

Me? Stop a war?

I was a normal 16-year-old, not some kind of a hero.

Okay, maybe not the normal bit that much, but still, not a hero.

'Nora.'

'Huh? What?'

'Lets go.'

'Oh, right.'

I looked up at Regulus as we headed back to Diagon Alley, from where he'd apparate me back to France, he was ranting about Borgin trying to sell him the venom for a much too high price, and how that, if it wasn't so urgent (and he wasn't thought to be dead), he'd take the cheater to court for this.

I sighed, how could he worry about something like that when we were going to try and destroy the horcrux in just a few hours time? My anxiousness was practically killing me.

'There, that should do it…' Regulus said raising the dagger on which he'd previously poured some of the basilisk venom. I eyed it for a moment, before turning to the locket on the table.

'You sure you can do this?' He nodded.

'I've heard the Dark Lord speaking parseltongue a couple of times, I should be able to imitate it…' Nodding I stepped back and watched as a strange hissing sound rose from Regulus' throat, sounding nothing like how parseltongue had been in the Harry Potter movies.

The locket flew open and a kind of smoke figure started forming, my eyes widened, that was-

'Regulus…' The man said. His voice was so cold, it chilled me to the bone, I'd never found the Voldemort in the movies particularly scary, revolting, maybe, but not scary.

The person in front of me though, he was a whole different story, his mere presence terrified me.

I gripped my wand tightly, but my mind had gone blank.

I turned to look at Regulus desperately, but he seemed to be, if possible, even worse than me.

I didn't think I'd ever seen someone look as terrified before, but I supposed it made sense, he had after all deserted him, and Voldemort, I knew, wasn't someone who would easily forgive and forget.

That only increased my panic, why the hell was Voldemort here? How had he found us? This hadn't happened in the books! I-

I stopped as realization hit me, this was-

'Snap out of it! It's an illusion!' Alphard's voice came.

'Destroy the locket, son!' I turned around to see Orion and Alphard, both shouting at Regulus to smash the horcrux.

'Regulus! Crush the damned thing!' I found myself shouting as well. 'Come on! Snap out of it!' I shook him and he turned to look at me before giving a small nod and bringing down the dagger.

A horrible, blood-curling scream filled the room and I had to cover my ears. It went on for a few seconds before it slowly sank in volume until it was completely gone.

Tsking my hands off my ears, I turned to look at the locket on the ground, it was destroyed, just as it should be, the knife lying next to it.

Not losing any time, I ran over to Regulus and kneeled next to him.

'Regulus?' I shook him a bit and it took him a moment to respond, when he did look up, a grin was playing on his lips. It filled me with relief, thank god, he wasn't hurt.

'You can't imagine how good that felt.'


	7. The house of Gaunt

I rolled over and groaned, pushing my face into my pillow.

Wanting to sleep and not being able to was bloody annoying, I'd been trying for over an hour now. I couldn't even remember why I'd woken up at two a.m. in the first place anymore.

I had gone to bed at ten, exhausted from the whole Horcrux destroying thing (no matter if I hadn't done any destroying), leaving Regulus to finish up the firewhiskey we'd opened earlier.

Damn, that thing was strong, it'd be one hell of a hangover if you got drunk with that.

I usually wasn't one for alcohol, two glasses of anything and I'd be too drunk to walk on my own, but after seeing Voldemort, even if it was only an illusion, both of us had needed to drink something strong.

Which led us to the only alcohol left in the house, a bottle of Ogden's firewhiskey.

Sighing, I threw the blankets off me, there was no way I was going to get any sleep like this, might as well make myself some hot chocolate.

Reaching out in the dark, I took my jacket and pulled it on before leaving the room.

'Lumos.' I whispered holding my wand up, not wanting to risk waking anyone up. The tip of the wand lit up allowing me to see a bit better.

The plan had been to head to the kitchen and get myself some hot chocolate, that way I might get a bit of sleep before the sun actually rose, but I stopped when I saw light emitting from Regulus' room.

He was awake? At this hour?

Pushing the door open a bit, I poked my head inside.

'Regulus?' I asked spotting the black haired 18-year-old sitting against the wall, clutching his arm. 'You okay?' I carefully entered, approaching the ex-Death Eater. 'I was just heading downstairs to make myself some hot chocolate…' I watched him for a few moments, but Regulus didn't respond. 'Can't sleep?' I slid down next to him, realizing that it wasn't just any part of his arm he was holding, it was his forearm.

'It's burning…' He whispered but it was so low I almost missed it.

'Huh? Wha- burning? You mean-'

'The Dark Mark. He's calling.' I frowned.

'You think he knows-?'

'No, he can't… he can't know.' He said trying to sound sure, but it sounded to me as if it was more himself he was trying to convince rather than me.

'Well, even if he did, you said it yourself, right? The house was warded by your father, it'd take them several hours to get past all of them, plenty of time to escape.' Regulus inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down. 'And anyway, there's no way he knows already.'

'Yes, but what if he went to the cave and-' I snorted, cutting him off.

'He's got too much confidence in his spell work and inferi, he never did check on it in the books, did he? Why would he now?' Sighing I ran a hand through my hair, trying to think of what I could do to help. 'Come on.' I said pushing myself up and then pulling Regulus up as well. 'I'll make you some hot chocolate, it always does wonders for me.'

We made our way downstairs, to the kitchen.

Both of the house elves were still asleep so I tried not to make any noise, though halfway through heating the milk, Poppy woke up anyway and insisted she make the hot chocolate.

'Thanks.' I said as the house elf gave each of us a mug.

We sat in silence, drinking the chocolate and soon, as I always did, I started feeling tired.

I jerked awake, reminding myself I couldn't fall asleep on the kitchen chair, Regulus looked like he needed some company.

But at this rate… my eyelids felt too heavy.

'You should go to sleep.' Regulus suddenly said.

'Wha- no, I'm f-fi-fine…' I said trying to stifle a yawn and failing.

'Yes, sure, just go. I'll follow shortly.' I turned to look at Regulus and put my now empty mug down. 'You don't need to worry about me, I'm feeling a lot better now.'

'You sure?' I asked starting to get up. Regulus nodded. 'Alright then… goodnight.' I started to make my way back upstairs, pausing to look back at Regulus, who made a shooing motion. Shrugging, I turned around and went straight to bed, sleep taking over me the moment my head touched the pillow.

The locket was gone, but there were still four to go, and today we were going after the goblet and ring.

Regulus had come up with the plan a while after I'd first met him and I'd though it was a bad idea from the moment he shared his thoughts, now, the nearer we got to the planned day, the more certain I grew that this was a horrible idea.

'I still think we should find another way.' I said eyeing the potion warily.

'I've made polyjuice potion before, Nora, it's perfectly-'

'I'm not talking about the potion, I'm talking about the insane idea that penetrated your mind.'

'Well, Harry and the others did the same thing in the books, didn't they? It worked out for them.' He shrugged as I stared at him incredulously.

'You _do_ realize that there were three of them and they almost got eaten by a dragon, don't you?'

'Of course, but they didn't quite know the Lestranges like I do, did they? I can pull off pretending to be-'

'This is insane.' I groaned in frustration. 'Fine. Don't listen to me.'

'Look, I can do this, I've been in the Lestrange vault before. Besides, you should concentrate on finding the ring.'

'I know, I know…'

'You think you'll manage to apparate that far?'

'I guess, it's been a while since I got splinched.'

'Yeah, but you've never actually apparated that far on your own either.' Regulus said and I shrugged.

'I'll manage.'

'Well, how do I look?' Turning around, I stared right into a pair of dark eyes. The man standing there was Regulus, only that he looked nothing like Regulus. He had dark hair and something about him crept me out.

'Not like you…'

'Well, that's kind of the purpose of taking polyjuice potion, isn't it?'

'Your cousin's married to him?' I asked making a circle around Regulus-Rodolphus, examining him. 'Wouldn't dream of dating him…'

'Well, it was an arranged marriage if that helps anything. But they're still perfect for each other, never seen two people enjoying themselves more while doing the Dark Lord's bidding.' I frowned.

'They sound like delightful people.' Regulus chuckled before turning to look at the time.

'I should get going, don't want the effect to wear off before I've got the cup.'

'Right…' With that, Regulus left via floo network. Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair, it wouldn't do to worry about him, I needed to get going myself.

Since little Hangleton was a muggle village, I had decided to wear my normal clothes, they might be from about forty years in the future, but at least they would stand out less than robes.

Assuring Poppy I would be careful not to catch a cold, I left the house, turning into an alley to apparate to England.

I first went to London, and from there to my real destination, the house of Marvolo Gaunt.

Damn, it could do with a good cleanup.

Everything was covered in thick layers of dust and some of the windows were broken, kids thinking it'd be funny probably.

'Ugh.' I pushed the door open trying to ignore the snake nailed there, disgusting.

Pulling my wand out of my pocket I whispered "Lumos".

The inside looked even worse than the outside.

Running a finger across the table's surface I frowned, for a moment debating on using a cleaning charm. Shaking it off, I turned around, I wasn't here to clean, I had to find the Horcrux.

'Accio Horcrux.' I said raising my wand, but of course that wouldn't work, it hadn't worked with the locket after all, why would it with the ring? Sighing I lowered my wand a bit. If I were Voldemort (god forbid), where would I hide a Horcrux?

I threw open drawers and cupboards, I looked under the couch, the table and the armchairs, but I found nothing else other than loads and loads of dust.

Coughing, I got up, wiping the dust off my clothes.

Where hadn't I looked yet?

Before I could think of that, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I turned around, wand raised. What was that? There was no one behind me, but I could swear I had seen something move.

There it was again!

And now it was gone, something, small… and black.

'Hello?' I asked uncertainly, if someone really _was_ here, calling out probably wasn't the best thing to do…

But no one responded.

I took a step towards the door, but stopped as something darted past me, almost giving me a heart attack.

I ducked, falling on the ground and reaching out for whatever it was that had taken refuge under the bed.

'Ha! I've got you now…!' I exclaimed pulling the thing that was trying to get out of my grip, biting and scratching, it was surprisingly soft, oh, hold on, that was- 'A cat…?' I asked raising the little black fur ball. It really was a cat. 'What are you doing here?' I asked the cat as I petted it, trying to get it to calm down, I couldn't help but smile as it started purring. 'You're such a cutie…!' I cooed. He (or was it a she?) meowed. 'Huh? What is it? What do you want?'

The cat jumped out of my arms and meowed.

'What is it kitty?' I asked as I followed the black cat, she led me the closet that was in the bedroom, starting to meow. 'What? You want something that's in there?' I moved over to the cat and opened the closet, pulled open the first drawer, blinking when I realized what was in there, a ring. Slytherin's ring.

Turning to look at the cat that was now rubbing her head against my foot, I took the ring and put it away.

'Come on you.' I said picking the cat up. 'Is your boss around here somewhere?' I got outside, but the cat made no move to leave my arms, glancing down at it, I smiled a little. 'I hope Regulus isn't allergic to cats then…'

With a small _pop_, we were gone.

'There you are, what took you so long?' I turned to look at Regulus, the effect of the polyjuice potion had worn off and he was now standing against the wall, arms crossed, a golden goblet on the table.

'Summoning charms didn't work, so I had to look the muggle way.' I said simply taking the ring out and putting it on the table, next to the goblet of Helga Hufflepuff. 'I'm assuming everything went fine?' Regulus nodded.

'They didn't realize who I was and I've got the cup.' He paused then. 'Is that… a cat…?'

'Well, yes. Here, hold her for a moment.'

'Wha-' He tried to protest but I'd already given him Shadow (a name I'd come up with a few seconds ago).

'I need to go take a shower, you can't imagine how filthy that house was…' Shivering, I made my way upstairs, leaving Regulus to deal with the cat.

After thirty minutes in the shower, I got out, wore my pjs and, a towel slung over my shoulders, made my way back to the living room.

Regulus seemed to be having a fight with Shadow, and, as pathetic as it sounded, he was losing.

'Where did you get that thing?' He asked as I picked the cat up, stopping her from further scratching the eighteen-year-old.

'She helped me find the Horcrux, didn't you Shadow?' I asked petting her as Regulus sat up, straightening his robes. 'Anyway, she was alone, and I couldn't just leave her, could I?' Regulus just muttered something under his breath which earned him a glare.

Before a fight could start though, someone knocked on the door.

We exchanged a look. Who the hell could it be at a time like this?

Getting up, I followed Poppy to the door, coming to a stop as I saw who was standing outside, I'd never seen him before, but just a glance was enough to see the similarity.

'Er… Regulus… could you come here for a moment?' I called, my eyes on the guy outside.

Regulus emerged from the living room soon enough, running a hand through his black hair.

'What is it No-' He stopped dead, his hand dropping to his side as he looked at the wizard standing outside disbelievingly. 'Sirius?'


	8. Sirius

We stood stood there for a while, just looking at each other in complete silence. I wanted to say something, lighten the mood a bit, but, other than not being able to think of anything worthwhile to say, I was hardly stupid enough to say anything while being held at wandpoint.

Finally, it was Sirius who spoke first.

'I should've know it.' He said and his eyes narrowed as he turned his wand away from me, pointing it at his brother instead. 'What are you doing here?'

'Sirius. I can explain.' Regulus said raising his arms a bit.

'You'd better Regulus. Because I'd like to know why my dead Death Eater brother was strolling down Diagon Alley pollyjuiced as Rodolphus Lestrange.'

We exchanged a look, Sirius had followed him here? That wasn't good.

'Er… we should take this inside.' I whispered to Regulus. 'A muggle's standing outside, and he's watching us.'

Looking over his brother's shoulder, who'd also turned to look back, Regulus saw that I was right, a man _was_ staring at us, probably because of the robes, I realized.

'Right.' Regulus turned to his brother, the man nodded and followed us inside (wand always pointed at us) while Poppy closed the door behind us.

'If you try anything…' He trailed off, leaving the rest to our imagination. Regulus and I exchanged a look.

'We won't, here.' Taking his wand out, the ex-Death Eater threw it at his brother. 'Nora's is on the table.' Sirius took that one as well before turning to us.

'I hadn't expected that, really, faking your death Regulus? What happened? Isn't being Voldemort's slave all it's cracked up to be?' Regulus chuckled humorlessly, but didn't respond at first, clearly lost in his thoughts.

'It's not the reason I left, but, for what it's worth, no, no it's not.' Sirius raised an eyebrow.

'I'm surprised you'd admit that, you're usually too pigheaded to admit your mistakes.'

'I took after you then, didn't I?' Regulus smirked and his brother seemed ready to retort, but before he could, the former went on talking. 'I'll give you this though, I may have realized it too late, but I'll admit, joining that lunatic, was the biggest mistake of my life.'

The look in Sirius' eyes softened and, before I had the time to register what was going on, he hugged his younger brother.

'I'm glad you came to your senses, even if it's this late.' He finally said stepping back. 'Why didn't you come to me? You know I'd have helped you, right?'

Regulus let out a low, humorless laugh and shook his head.

'You know as well as I do that I couldn't.' He said. 'Besides, you've got enough on your mind without me being added to everything.'

'What's that supposed to mean? You're my brother, that's more important.'

'Sirius-'

'Don't start. Do you know in what state Andy's been ever since she heard of your supposed death? She's been crying her eyes out. If you'd come to me after you realized you couldn't take the Death Eater life-'

'Look. Sir-'

'He didn't chicken out.' I interrupted the brothers, turning both of their attention on me. Sirius looked back and forth before me and Regulus, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

'He didn't?' Regulus frowned.

'No, not quite.'

'Then… what happened?' I exchanged a look with the ex-Death Eater.

'Sirius, do you know what a horcrux is?'

His already low opinion of Voldemort sank even more as Regulus and I told him about the Horcruxes and what had happened with Kreacher, we had to practically force him to stay seated when we reached the spot where Regulus was going to sacrifice himself to get the locket.

By the time we got to the end of it all, he seemed more determined than ever to defeat Voldemort, offering (or rather, demanding) to help us with the remaining horcruxes, but, as Regulus told him, he had enough with order business on his mind, and besides, it was something Regulus wanted to do.

To that, the elder Black had agreed, saying he'd help us however he could from the outside, as well as keep the fact Regulus was not dead secret.

He had refused, however, to leave without making sure we'd keep him up-to-date with our progress no matter what.

He had become surprisingly protective of his little brother after hearing how he had gone and drunk that potion to get the locket, but then again, maybe it wasn't so odd, anyone would be shocked after hearing such a story.

**XXX**

'So… there's one at Hogwarts?' Sirius asked as we sat in his flat, drinking butterbeer. I nodded as I petted Shadow, who had seated herself on my lap.

'I've got an idea about how we're going to get the diary…' Regulus said drinking a bit of his butterbeer before going on. 'But the diadem's another story… it'd be hard even if I wasn't supposed to be dead.'

'I bet I could get inside Hogwarts.' Sirius said turning to us.

'I suppose… but do you know how to get inside the room of requirement?'

'Room of what?'

'Requirement.' Regulus said simply. 'A room that appears before you when you need it.'

'Oh, you mean the one- yeah, I know how to find that.'

'So then, you're going after the tiara, diadem, whatever and we,' I turned to Regulus. 'are going after the dairy… but how exactly?'

'Well, you said Lucius has it, right?' I slowly nodded

'Er… yes. But, what exactly… we're not just, you know, barging in, are we?' Regulus gave me an incredulous look before going on.

'Of course not, that'd be stupid.'

'Then-'

'The Christmas banquet is being held at Malfoy manor this year.'

'Really? How do you know that?' My only response was a shrug.

'Mother had been complaining about it quite a while, it was supposed to be the Blacks' turn this year, you see.'

'Oh…'

'Anyway, you don't need an invitation to go there, as long as you're pureblood, you're welcome.' Ah, this started to make more sense now.

'So we're sneaking in?' I asked taking a sip from my butterbeer.

'Swaggering in would be a more appropriate way to put it, but yes, mainly.'

'Well, _you_'ll have no problem then, you've been doing it for years.' Regulus gave his brother a look.

'I don't swagger.' Sirius snorted.

'No, not at all.'

'He doesn't swagger…' I cut in confused, when had Regulus swaggered without me noticing?

'Huh, I guess he doesn't, anymore at least, you should've seen him at Hogwarts, strutting around with his Slytherin cronies as if he owned the place.'

'I'll remind you, Sirius, that you weren't much different yourself with Potter and co.' Sirius opened his mouth to protest, but I was faster.

'You know, if the books are anything to go by, I've got to agree with Regulus.' Sirius shut up and I busied myself with petting my cat again.

Shadow was a weird animal, the only one she let pet her was me, she scratched and bit everyone else, Regulus had dubbed her "the cat from hell", which had earned him multiple glares from me.

How could he call such a cutie "the cat from hell"?

We all looked up as there suddenly was a knock on the door, a visitor, at this time?

'I better go get that.' Sirius said getting up and leaving me alone with Regulus.

Shrugging it off, I got up, reaching for my cloak as Regulus went to get the floo powder.

We were about to leave, my one leg already inside the emerald flames, when we heard Sirius' voice from the hall.

'Oh, hi Peter, what are you doing here?'

I exchanged a look with Regulus.

'Peter?' I whispered. I couldn't be _that_ Peter, right?

The person outside, Peter, said something which we didn't hear, but Sirius' following words confirmed my suspicions.

'Oh, I see. Sorry Wormtail, he's not here, actually, I haven't seen him since- Oi! What are you two doing?' Sirius exclaimed as both of us ran into the room, wands drawn on the short blonde.

Pettigrew let out a frightened squeak at the sight of Regulus, making him look even more pathetic than he was.

'W-wha- a- a Death Eater…!' He stuttered. 'Sirius!'

'Wormtail, relax, and you two, would you put your wands away?'

'He's a Death Eater.' I accused, pointing my wand at Pettigrew. Sirius looked taken aback, but that wasn't so shocking, considering the whole secret-keeper thing hadn't happened yet.

'What? Peter? He's not-'

'Yes he is!' I exclaimed, my wand never leaving the pathetic form.

'He's been to Death Eater meetings. I've seen him, Sirius.'

'I-I haven't!' Pettigrew cried, much too panicked to keep his cool and actually make his lie believable. 'Y-You of course know he's lying, right? H-He's the Death Eater, Sirius!' The rat animagus exclaimed pointing at Regulus, who only glared at him in return. 'He's trying to frame me!'

'Why the bloody hell would we want to? You're the one that-' Regulus shot me a look clearly warning me to shut up, he didn't want me telling them about the events revealed in the third Harry Potter book. I nodded, if he didn't want to, I wouldn't.

'Sirius, you've got to believe us, he's a Death Eater.'

'I- I am not! Sirius! Don't you see? He- they- they're trying to make us fight among ourselves…! Find out the order's secrets! I- I'm your friend, you know I'd never-'

'Why was he even put in Gryffindor?' Regulus cut the rat animagus off. 'He's a filthy, cowardly little-' Sirius looked back and forth between his friend and brother, trying to decide who he should believe.

'We can prove it.' I suddenly cut in making a grab for Pettigrew's arm.

'Expelliarmus!' Regulus cried, disarming the rat.

'Regulus! Nora!'

'Sirius! Stop them! They're-'

'It's hardly going to hurt you Pettigrew.' I sneered, I'd never liked Pettigrew in the books and actually seeing him only made it worse. 'You're just afraid Sirius will find out where your loyalties lie.'

'But… this is insane, Wormtail can't-' Sirius didn't get to defend the traitor any more for I managed to jerk his sleeve up, revealing the Dark Mark branded on his forearm. 'Peter?' He asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

The rat animagus looked around, panic obvious in his eyes and before I knew what was going on, he was starting to shrink.

'He's getting away!' I exclaimed, shooting a hex at the rat.

Hissing, Shadow darted past us, chasing Pettigrew, exchanging a look, Regulus and I followed as well, shooting hexes and curses at the rat while also trying not to hit Shadow by mistake.

Sirius stood perfectly still, probably still in too much of a daze to react to the rat trying to escape.

It was dark though, and Pettigrew's squeaks were the only thing we had to follow. For a while, Shadow was hot in pursuit, almost catching the damned thing once or twice (running after small animals was her forte), but in the end, even she couldn't keep up, the damn rat could run fast, it probably was about the only thing he could do too.

I came to a stop, panting heavily, my wand raised as I scanned my surroundings, but it was too dark, there were too many shadows, too many cracks he could escape into.

'Damn it.' I whispered. 'We lost him.'


	9. Malfoy manor

'What's taking them so long?' I asked, staring intently at the door behind which the two girls had disappeared a bit over an hour and a half ago.

'Well, you know women,' James said reaching out and ruffling his hair. 'They like to take their time.'

'It doesn't even take Cissy that long to get dressed.'

'Huh, that must be some kind of an accomplishment then, no one takes longer to get ready than Narcissa.' Sirius said from his position on the sofa. I was about to snap at my brother for turning this into some kind of a joke, yet _again_, but then the door clicked open making us all turn around.

'Ta-da! Here she is.' Lilly said coming out of the bedroom.

My breath got caught in my throat and I had to do a double take, the girl behind the red-haired muggleborn was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, she could even compare to Cissy, who, everyone knew, was the most good-looking of the Black sisters, and that was saying something.

Her dress was a light shade of indigo and her blonde hair was pulled up in a special kind of bun, undoubtedly what took them so long to get ready.

For a moment, all I could do was stare and as I did so, she flushed, starting to play with the purse she was holding.

Sirius cleared his throat giving me a little shove.

'Huh?'

'I asked, what do you think?' Lilly said as the two started to come down the stairs.

'It's-' I never got to name what it was though, for Nora tripped, even though nothing was in front of her, and started falling.

I reacted out of pure instinct, I hadn't even realized what I was doing until I was already holding her in my arms. 'Are you okay?' I asked quickly letting go.

She was completely red now, and I had to admit, it made her look kinda cute, it wasn't often that Nora blushed.

'Y-yes, sure, I-I'm fine, thanks.' She quickly looked away and turned to Lilly. 'I told you I can't walk wearing high heels.'

'But they were the only shoes that went with the dress, you can hardly wear sneakers, can you?'

Sighing, Nora got up.

'I _hate_ wearing dresses.' She huffed picking her purse up.

'She wanted to wear jeans…' Lilly informed us. 'Under the dress that is.' Sirius and James rolled their eyes.

'Only Nora…'

'So, when are we leaving?' I turned to look at the time.

'Now, the banquet's already started.' Nodding she moved over to where I was standing as Sirius cast a glamour charm on me (he always had been better at it than I).

'Well, we'll be off then.'

I took Nora's hand and the last thing we saw before being taken over by the feeling of apparition, was Lilly waving and telling us to be careful.

We appeared in front of a huge mansion with a light _pop_.

'Wow…' Nora breathed.

'Come on.' Nodding, she followed me.

We swaggered inside arrogantly, befitting our pureblood status, Nora managing not to trip over her own feet, and blended in with all the other purebloods, avoiding Lucius and Narcissa as well as Death Eaters.

We stayed in the ballroom for a while, watching guests and pretending to enjoy ourselves.

Once or twice I saw Bellatrix and made sure to put as much distance between us as possible, they didn't seem to have seen through my disguise but I'd rather not test it either.

Glancing around, I moved over to Nora, who was now devouring the snacks on the buffet, and tapped her shoulder, motioning her to follow me.

Taking another handful of crackers she did, discreetly leaving the ballroom.

'So, where are we going to look?' She asked when we were finally out of earshot.

'He might've put it in Abraxas' study, well, it's technically Lucius' now that his father's died.' Nora nodded.

'Alright, lead the way then.'

We started walking down the long halls of Malfoy manor, I'd come here countless times, I could've found the study with my eyes closed, after all, the Malfoys had been one of the few families with which we had been allowed to have contact.

Even among purebloods, our parents had been picky, wanting us to be associated only with the best of the best.

Their intentions had been good, no doubt, but among the few families they had approved of, the only ones remotely close to our age (other than our cousins), had been Lucius and some pink toffee called Dolores one-or-the-other, Merlin, I'd hated her. She was starting a career in the Ministry now, if I wasn't mistaken.

Shaking my mind off the Dolores, I turned to Nora, only to come to a stop. I raised an eyebrow.

'What are you doing?' I asked eyeing the shoes she was holding in her hand, leaving her barefoot.

'My feet hurt, and I'd rather not break a leg because of these shoes.' Sighing I shook my head and walked on.

'Come on, we're here.' Pulling my wand out, I pointed it at the door. 'Alohomora.' I said.

There was a small _click_ and the door opened.

I motioned Nora to follow me as I whispered "lumos". The study was just as I remembered it, dark and filled with books.

'How exactly is this dairy supposed to look like?' I asked examining some of the books on the shelves.

'Er… it's black, I think.'

'There's many black books here Nora…'

'Well, Tom Marvolo Riddle is written on it, if that helps any, and I believe the name of a muggle street is written somewhere on there as well…' I nodded and started looking through the shelves for a book that looked like Nora's description.

'You take the desk, it'll go faster that way.' Nora nodded and started looking through all the papers and things on Lucius' desk.

'If I were a horcrux…' I heard her muse to herself 'Where would I be?'

'Presumably hidden somewhere.'

'Yes… but where?' Nora sighed. 'I'll try summoning it, though I doubt it would- oh shit.'

'Nora?' I looked at her from over my shoulder.

'Shit. Shit. Shit.' She cursed as she looked through her purse. 'This can't be happening…'

'What's wro-'

'Looking for this?' I turned around, dropping the book I'd been holding.

'Lucius.' I said as my eyes narrowed, he was holding two wands, from the looks of it, I'd say the second was Nora's.

'Hello Regulus.' Nora gasped. He knew who I was? But the glamour spell-? 'I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to actually come here…' Lucius said, his wand pointed at us. 'But oh well, all the better for me, the Dark Lord will be very pleased when I bring him the traitor…'

I glanced at Nora, she stood frozen, staring at Lucius, then, for a moment our eyes met.

'You get it, I'll hold him off!' I said lunging at Lucius, crying "stupefy!".

He dodged and sent his own curse back. I countered.

I knew I couldn't win against Lucius in a duel, but I could hold him off.

Now that we were dueling, my body was moving on its own, curses and spells leaving my lips on instinct, only focusing on my opponent, Lucius. My wand, willow and phoenix feather, was made for dueling, Ollivander had said so on the very first time I met him, on my eleventh birthday, when mum took me to buy my wand.

'I've got it!' Nora cried as I dodged a killing curse, both of us turned to her, and Lucius' eyes widened as his eyes fell on the black little book she was holding.

I saw my chance and took it.

'Expelliarmus!' Both his and Nora's wands flew out of Lucius' hand. Not being able to hold back, I smirked at my fellow Slytherin and pureblood. 'Come on.' Nora nodded.

'No! Wait- that book-!' Grabbing her hand I pulled Nora along and started running down the manor's halls.

'Regulus! There are people following us!' Nora exclaimed looking back, taking a moment to look over my shoulder while I ran, I threw them a hex.

But that only seemed to provoke them, for they started using their wands as well, aiming all kinds of curses at us.

'They're attacking us!'

'I know! Just run!' Glancing back, Nora nodded. A killing curse passed by her, missing her for just a few inches, Nora cursed. 'What in the name of Merlin are you doing?'

'What does it look like?' Nora shouted. 'I'm defending myself!'

'By throwing your shoes at them?'

'Well you have my wand!'

Before I could give Nora her wand though, wizards and witches appeared from around the corner, encircling us.

'Oh no…' Nora moaned. 'What now?'

I looked around, trying to calm myself down, I had to think of a way to get us out of here.

'Now…' Lucius said, emerging from somewhere inside the crowd, he held out his hand. 'I'd like that book the lady is holding, and my wand.' Nora turned to look at me, we were surrounded, and everyone had wands…

'I think I've got an idea.' I whispered in her ear.

'Yeah?' She followed my eyes to the open window to our right, no one was standing there. She turned to look at me, her eyebrows raised. 'Are you mad…?' She hissed.

'Possibly.' Before Nora had the time to resist, I pushed her out of the window, jumping out after her.

Something hit my shoulder, a curse of some kind and I was overwhelmed with pain, Nora's cursing kept me conscious just long enough to grab her and disapparate before we hit the ground, then everything went black.


	10. Calm before the storm

It took me a few moments to recover from the sudden apparition, my head hurt like hell and I felt like throwing up.

Damn.

I sat up and breathed in and out slowly, stupid nausea. Where the heck were we anyway?

Trying to ignore my headache I got up and looked around, lots of green, a field, trees…

'Hey, Regulus-' When I turned to the black haired Death Eater however (the glamour charm had worn off), I stopped, my eyes widening. 'Regulus? Oh my god.' I rushed over to the figure lying on the ground. 'He's bleeding.' I whispered as I kneeled down next to him, one of those curses must've hit him. But what spell was it?

Damn it.

'Come on, where's my wand now?' He'd been holding it before that stupid stunt, I mean, who jumps out of a window like that anyway? 'After I save him, I'm going to kill him.' I muttered, having at last found the wands.

Picking up mine, I pointed it at Regulus' shoulder. 'Ferula.' Bandages flew out of my wand and wrapped themselves around Regulus' injuries as I got up to take a look around. 'Lumos.' It wasn't much help, but it was enough to tell that there weren't any houses close by.

What now?

I had to get him some proper help, Sirius, James or even Lilly would do… but could I manage to apparate with Regulus unconscious? I'd never taken a second person along before.

Clutching the dairy, I moved closer to the unconscious 18-year-old.

'Okay… I can do it.' I told myself. Taking Regulus' hand I took a deep breath.

I could do this. Nothing was going to go wrong, it couldn't be that different from normal apparition, could it?

Closing my eyes, I clearly formed the image of Lilly and James' house in my mind.

It was now or never.

Please, please, please don't get splinched.

_Pop._

'Nora!' I looked up into two big, worried green eyes.

'Lilly…' I breathed out relieved. 'I did it.'

'Are you okay?' The redhead asked, clearly she hadn't noticed Regulus yet, her eyes slowly wandered to him and she gasped. 'Melin's beard, what happened?'

'I- I don't know, he was hit by something…' Quickly glancing around, Lilly took her wand out.

'Come on, lets go inside.' I nodded and Lilly helped me up, at the same time giving her wand a flick and levitating Regulus, non-verbal magic? I'd seen Regulus do it sometimes, but it seemed like I just couldn't manage it.

Concentration, he said, was the key. But no matter how much I tried I just couldn't.

Taking my mind off non-verbal magic, I followed Lilly inside.

James and Sirius were sitting on the couch, talking about something as Remus (who must've arrived sometime after we left) was asleep on an armchair.

'Are they back?' Sirius asked, jumping up as Lilly entered. 'Are they okay?'

'They're okay… though Regulus got hit by something.'

'I don't know what it was exactly, I didn't see it.'

The two marauders jumped up letting Lilly put Regulus down on the couch.

'Do you have the horcrux?' I nodded.

'Here, you take it.' I said throwing the dairy at James. 'You haven't gotten to destroy one yet, have you?' The black haired wizard stared at me for a few seconds before he spoke.

'What? But wouldn't you rather-'

'I don't feel like it right now, just get rid of it, and whatever you do, do not write in it.'

'Wasn't planning to, I'm not that stupid.'

Usually Sirius would've smirked and said "could've fooled me" or something equally childish, but this time, he didn't say anything.

I moved over to the couch where Regulus was, surrounded by Lilly, Remus (who'd been awoken by the commotion) and Sirius.

'How is he?' I asked.

'He's doing fine, don't worry.' Lilly said smiling at me encouragingly before turning back to Regulus and saying another healing spell. 'I've stopped the bleeding, and he should be up soon, it doesn't look like anything too severe…'

'Good…' I sighed, relieved that he wasn't in any immediate danger.

'What happened anyway? Were you discovered?' I frowned.

'I don't know exactly what happened, but Lucius Malfoy saw through the glamour charm…'

'So Malfoy did this?' Sirius asked, clenching his fists. I turned to him, he seemed to barely be containing his anger, ready to apparate to the Malfoy manor and hex them all into oblivion.

'Oh, er, no, well, he might've, there were others.' At this, everyone, except Sirius who was still making sure his brother was alright, turned to me, Lilly looking really worried.

'Death Eaters?'

'I don't know if all of them were Death Eaters…' I said skeptically, it had been an awful lot of people, they couldn't all be Death Eaters, could they? 'it looked more like it was all of the guests…'

'All of the guests?' Sirius asked turning away from his brother for the fist time. 'How in the name of Merlin did you escape?'

I turned to look at Regulus and the others followed my gaze to the unconscious 18-year-old.

'He pushed me out of a window.' For a moment, none of them said anything, probably trying to believe the fact that Regulus, someone who was usually overly cautious, had not only jumped out of a window himself, but pushed someone else out as well.

'He- what?' Sirius choked out. I shrugged.

'Don't ask me, it was his idea, must've been hit with a confundus charm during his duel with Lucius Malfoy, I mean, who jumps out of a freaking window? We could've-'

'No, it was actually a quite logical thing to do.' I looked up, my eyebrow raised at Remus who had a skeptical look written across his face. 'I'll bet Malfoy manor has anti-apparition charms on it, like most wizarding houses, by jumping out of the window, he got you out of the spell range, allowing you to apparate.'

I bit my lip, when told like that, it sounded quite logical indeed, I wouldn't have complained if he'd given me some sort of a warning beforehand though.

'Anyway, you must be exhausted, Nora…' Lilly said snapping me back to reality. 'Why don't you go get some sleep, we'll stay with Regulus.' I turned to look at the redhead who was smiling warmly down at me, sighing, I shook my head.

'No, I'll stay here.'

'Are you sure?' I nodded.

'Yeah, you don't need to worry about me.' I said going to sit down next to Regulus.

Though Lilly offered and asked again and again, none of us left Regulus' side, finally, realizing it was a lost cause, she went to go make us something hot to drink.

It was good past midnight when Remus said he had to go home, and about three quarters of an hour later, Lilly and James also left, leaving me alone with Sirius.

We didn't say much, both of us were too tired and worried about Regulus to come up with anything worthwhile to discuss.

It was around three when my eyebrows started feeling too heavy to stay open, I must've fallen asleep on that armchair, for the next time I opened my eyes, light was already pouring inside the living room from the windows.

I sat up, looking around as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

As I yawned, something suddenly caught my attention.

The couch was empty.

No Regulus in sight. Getting up, I looked around, nope, no Regulus in the living room. Maybe he'd wandered off to some other part of the house.

Honestly, he wasn't even supposed to be standing, let alone walking around yet, Lilly had said he should rest after he woke up.

Being as quiet as I could (Sirius was still asleep in the second armchair), I made my way over to the kitchen.

Someone was in there, that much I could tell, he or she was making enough noise for someone to notice, but not to wake up the house.

Unlike my sister that is, whenever she tried to make anything, it ended up burned and one third of our plates broken, how exactly she managed, I didn't know, maybe because she was always talking on the phone with her girl friends.

Thinking of Lizzie made me feel a bit guilty.

I hadn't thought of her in a while, or mum, or dad…

It wasn't like I didn't miss them, I did, and there were times when I wanted nothing more than to see them, but I didn't know if I could get back home.

Which brought me to the second matter…

I didn't even know if I really _wanted_ to leave. Sure, I'd get to see my friends and family again, and I sure as hell wouldn't have to hunt pieces of a madman's soul back home, but I'd gotten used to this world by now, the magic and the people.

I didn't know if I wanted to return to a world where magic was only found in fairy tales, not now that I had discovered it was real. Leaving all this behind, Regulus, Lilly, Sirius, James and Remus, leaving all of them behind, it felt just as wrong as it felt when I thought of leaving Lizzie and the others behind.

It was just so confusing, all of it… I didn't even know what was right anymore.

Sighing I entered the kitchen, my mind immediately taken off Lizzie and my feelings of guilt when I saw him.

'Regulus.' I whispered as tears sprung to my eyes.

'Huh?' The ex-Death Eater turned around and looked at me 'Nora?' he asked putting the jar of peanut butter he'd taken out of the cupboard down. 'What- are you… crying…?'

'Well of course I'm crying!' I exclaimed as I felt more tears roll down my cheeks. 'Do you have any idea how worried I've been?'

He stood there awkwardly for a while, not knowing exactly what to say or do as I cried, trying to yell at him but hiccupping too much to actually manage.

'Nora…' He finally said, pausing and biting his lip before taking a step towards me. 'Shh. Don't cry Nora, I'm sorry.' He whispered and my eyes widened as he pulled me into a hug.

For a moment I was frozen, still processing exactly what had happened. But the next thing I knew, I was crying again, this time on his expensive dress robes. Not that I cared, my emotions were such a mess I couldn't bring myself to care about anything else.

I was angry at Regulus for making me worry like that, but I was happy that he was alright, most of all though, I was relieved.

It felt like hours passed before I pulled away, my sobs had subdued by then and as I dried the remaining few tears, I avoided looking at Regulus.

I felt my face grow hot, god, I'd cried on him like a kid, how embarrassing… if only the earth could open up and swallow me…

'So… er… well' I started trying to think of something to say. 'W-what were you doing here?'

'Oh, nothing, I just wanted to get myself something to eat…' He nodded towards the jar of peanut butter.

Of course, stupid question, what else would you want inside a kitchen? I cursed myself for asking such a stupid question and offered to make breakfast. Regulus tried to refuse of course, but, as I pointed out, it was either that or not eating at all as he couldn't cook to save his life (a fact I'd found out the hard way).

It wasn't long until Sirius joined, and he was grinning. And from experience, that never, _ever_, meant anything good. He couldn't have seen that earlier, could he?

Whether he did or not, he still made me sit next to Regulus, only grinning wider when I felt myself blush.

Lilly and James at least, acted like their normal selves when they joined us about ten minutes later, being all lovey-dovey as usual. It had never bothered me before, but now, for some reason, I kept imagining Regulus and myself in their place.

I was sure I had been tomato red by the end of breakfast.

We were sitting in the living room sometime later that week, Regulus listening attentively as I explained to how telephones worked.

No one else was home, Remus was off on order business and Sirius had taken his motorbike and was flying around somewhere while James and Lilly were out visiting St. Mungo's to see how baby Harry (whom Lilly had found out she was pregnant with only recently) was doing.

I was about to explain wireless internet, when a silver stag appeared before us, a patronus? I exchanged a look with Regulus.

If it was a stag then… James?

'Voldemort has gotten inside Hogwarts. Get here as fast as you can.' James's voice was heard before the stag disappeared.


	11. Battle of Hogwarts

I looked around me as I stepped out of the fireplace and into the unfamiliar office.

I took in my surroundings, slightly wondering if what we were doing would be considered trespassing by the owner. Well, seeing as the castle was under attack at the moment, I supposed they could care less about us having used the floo network to get here.

Pushing a lock of my blonde hair being my ear, I took a look around. I was in a medium-sized room, the walls filled with moving pictures, they kind of reminded me of videos playing over and over again.

A few of the people shown in the pictures I recognized, Regulus was in several of them, as was Lily and a pale hook-nosed boy who I had no doubt was Severus Snape, he looked exactly as I'd always imagined he would.

There were a few shelves as well, lined with different vials containing potions or jars filled with all sorts of ingredients.

Was this Slughorn's office? Had to be… it sure as hell wasn't Snape's (he wasn't even a teacher yet), it'd be a lot darker than this, not to mention, Snape would kill himself before putting a picture that contained James Potter in his office.

Taking my attention off the pictures, I turned to the only person in the room besides me.

Regulus was waiting by the door, he had his wand out, peaking outside to see if there was anyone there.

Moving over to him, I pulled out my own wand as well, if something were to happen I might as well be ready to fight.

'Come on.' He finally said after he'd secured the area. Nodding, I followed him outside the office, gazing around in awe, for a moment allowing myself to admire the magnificence of the famous castle. Had I been here under other circumstances I'd have squealed in delight, after all, even I, who wasn't such a huge Harry Potter freak, had wanted to visit Hogwarts when I was younger.

There were millions of Harry Potter fans all over the world, and I, me, Nora Newman, actually got to see the castle close up.

I could hardly believe it.

The thought of asking Regulus whether it'd be possible to go to Hogwarts as a transfer student for a year after all this was over crossed my mind, but I decided not to bother him with something like that right now, it was hardly the most convenient time to chat.

We walked up some stairs, heading for the Great Hall.

We passed by some 7th years arguing with a spectacled woman, McGonagall I assumed, about whether or not they could stay and fight, clearly, McGonagall didn't want them to.

A little further down that same hall, Peeves, who looked surprisingly like the Peeves in my best friend's computer game, was tormenting a couple of stupid-looking Death Eaters, attacking them with pieces of armor while singing an irritating song of some kind. Or he at least claimed it to be singing, it sounded more like a horde of wailing cats rather than a song, how could someone sing _that_ off tune?

Finally reaching the Great Hall (after getting away from Moaning Myrtle that is), we ran inside, immediately ducking, if we hadn't, we'd have been hit by a stray curse.

The only words that came to my mind upon seeing the scene in front of me, were _complete pandemonium_.

I could hardly tell who were Death Eaters and who weren't, aside from the masks there was nothing to tell them apart, they were all robed, they were all fighting.

Scanning the crowd I looked for a familiar face, any familiar face, they had to be here somewhere, right?

'There!' Regulus exclaimed taking my arm and pulling me along so we wouldn't get separated in this chaos.

After blocking a stray curse thrice and dodging another one twice, we finally made it to our destination.

'Lily! Behind you!' I called out to the redhead.

Whipping around, she performed a stunning spell, hitting her target her and knocking him out cold.

Wow, she was good.

'Thanks.' Lily breathed. 'Good you could come, we could really use some help here.'

'I thought James wasn't letting you fight…?' Regulus asked as he dueled a tall Death Eater, right next to Lily and I who had taken on a short but skilled witch.

'Well, yes, he was opposed to it, but like hell I'm going to stay home while everyone is here fighting Voldemort.'

I smiled having to resist the urge to roll my eyes (it'd be stupid to do that in the middle of a duel), ever since Lily told James about her pregnancy he had become overprotective.

But Lily could handle herself, she was an excellent dueler, as I had come to realize during the short time she'd trained me in dueling. Now that she was really fighting, it was clear as crystal that James was worrying way too much.

'Nora! Regulus!' I looked back as Lily's curse hit the witch, immobilizing her.

Sirius was running over to us, James following closely behind. Regulus glanced at the duo, somehow managing to keep an eye on his opponent as well.

'Sirius!' He called out. 'Take Nora and go find the diadem!'

Exchanging a look with Sirius, we both nodded, James slipping in to take over my opponent as Sirius and I left the Great Hall.

The halls were pretty empty compared to the Great Hall, and the further we went, the less people there were.

We passed by a couple of Death Eaters, but they were out cold in a matter of seconds, I supposed that was because they had already been weakened by Peeves throwing pieces of armor at them though.

Filch and his cat, kitten actually, were also running about, trying to order around the suits of armor but they seemed to unwilling to follow his command, I supposed that, being a squib, he couldn't do much more than try to persuade enchanted suits of armor to fight.

Coming to a stop I stared up at the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy as Sirius started pacing up and down, making the entrance to the Room of Requirement appear.

'This is it, right?' Sirius asked as we entered.

I looked around the room, the countless things piled up all around us. I nodded.

'I think so…' I said taking in everything in the room. Pushing a lock of hair behind my ear, I sighed. 'We better start looking.'

Nodding, Sirius and I split up, looking for Ravenclaw's diadem. Damn whoever the hell invented anti-summoning charms, this could take weeks the muggle way. And me not remembering where exactly Harry found the wretched thing didn't help either…

'Nora?' I heard Sirius's voice after a while of searching through various junk and things.

'Hmm?' I asked, not looking up from the box I was currently looking through. Junk, junk, book… teddy bear? You really could find anything in here…

'How exactly does this diadem thingy look like?'

I paused, looking up, my eyes narrowing in concentration as I tried to remember.

'Er… I don't really- kind of like a tiara… I'd guess.'

'Right… tiara…'

He looked back down again and we went on in silence for a few seconds, before-

'Looking for this?'

Both of us looked up, surprised by the sudden appearance of the two boys. One couldn't be older than myself and the second seemed to barely be out of Hogwarts, but something about them, maybe the fact that they had us at wandpoint, made me sure their presence here could mean nothing good.

Sirius and I exchanged a look, the eldest was holding a tiara-like thing, Ravenclaw's diadem.

'That tiara…' I nodded, we had to get it somehow.

I could feel the dagger inside the robes, ready to be used, but we had to get the diadem first.

I supposed that just asking for it was out of question, they had made that much clear as green sparks flew out of the younger's wand.

So, not really having another choice, we took our own wands out, ready to take the damned thing by force.

Sirius took the eldest while I took the guy in Slytherin robes.

It wasn't like fighting against Lily or Regulus had been, not in the slightest.

The realization that this was my life I was putting at stake by doing this was finally starting to dawn on me. This wasn't a game. It made something inside me stir, I had to win, had to.

I put up a shield charm protecting myself from whatever horrible curse the Slytherin had hurled at me.

Glancing to my right, I saw Sirius and the Death Eater fighting non-verbally, I was lucky that at least my opponent seemed to have trouble with non-verbal spells as well, I knew I'd be as good as dead up against someone who had even the slightest mastery in non-verbal magic. God knew how many times Lily tried to teach me how to do it.

A killing curse was shot at me, and I didn't have the time to be shocked, only dodge.

I fell on the ground, hitting my head against some bookcase, the only good thing of this whole situation being that all things stored on the ancient-looking bookcase's shelves hadn't all fallen on me.

As for the rest, things looked grim…

Sirius was still fighting and I wasn't entirely sure he'd noticed my situation yet anyway. I glanced at the Hogwarts student who was now advancing, his wand pointed at me.

_Stupefy!_ I thought pointing my wand at him, trying not to make it too obvious I was trying to stun him non-verbally. _Stupefy!_ I thought harder, but it was just as ineffective as the first time I tried it.

Damn it. Come on, it had got to work.

'Huh? I've never seen you around… not a Hogwarts student, are you?' He asked, his wand pointed straight at my chest.

Shit, come on, _Stupefy!_ Nothing, at least the guy hadn't noticed what I was trying to do yet, he seemed to be too busy bragging about Voldemort and how he was going to be rewarded. His voice was coated with pure adoration, how could someone as much as admire that lunatic, let alone adore him?

'I'd like to see father's face when he finds out that, I, his son, joined the Dark Lord.' He said blowing his straw-colored hair out of his eyes. 'The son of such an important ministry official…' He laughed insanely and I bit my lip, thinking _Stupefy!_ again.

This time, as much to my own as the boy's surprise, a flash of light shot out of my wand, hitting the Slytherin straight in the chest and knocking him out.

'Barty!' The Death Eater Sirius was fighting bellowed, for a moment taking his mind off the fight, but that was more than enough time for Sirius, with a swift wand movement, the Death Eater was stunned.

I looked at the two Death Eaters skeptically as Sirius took the diadem from the unconscious guy's hand.

'Here.' I said, throwing him the knife. He caught it and turned to the Horcrux as I pondered over the two Death Eaters, frowning deeply. 'Barty…' I murmured, that was what the eldest had called him, but where had I heard that name before? Barty… Barty… Barty… 'Crouch!' I exclaimed, yes, Barty Crouch, the creep that had killed his own father in the Goblet of Fire. What was it he did with the man afterwards? Transform him into a bone and burry him? The very idea was disgusting.

'Nora, come on.' Turning to look at Sirius, I found that the diadem was already destroyed and he was giving me a look clearly stating _hurry up woman!_

I nodded and quickly followed him out of the room of Requirement, heading back to the Great hall.

Now that all the Horcruxes were destroyed, the only thing that actually remained, was Voldemort… now, how exactly we were going to manage and kill him was another story. It wouldn't be easy, that much I knew.

Maybe we should just make Dumbledore do it, I mean, he _was_ one of the most powerful wizards around, but then again, I was also fully aware of the fact that Dumbledore didn't have it in him to kill.

So that wouldn't work, but who could end it if not him? The boy-who-lived, the one who was supposed to end it all, wasn't even out of his mother's womb yet.

My mind was still on who would be the one to kill Voldemort as we entered the Great Hall.

The situation wasn't any better than it had been when we left the room about half and hour ago.

I blocked a curse that flew our way, more specifically, at Sirius.

'What-' Before I got to end that, an insane laughter filled the Great Hall.

'Cousin! Hey, cousin~!' The black haired woman sing-songed as she walked towards us, madness obvious in her black eyes.

I looked around me, any opponent was better than the crazed out Bellatrix Lestrange who was at the moment looking like a kid on Christmas morning. Sirius gripped his wand tightly as his cousin cackled gleefully.

'Avada Kedavra!' She screeched and my eyes widened as the green flash of light drew nearer and nearer, at this rate…

I grabbed Sirius and pulled him down, the killing curse missing him by inches. I let out a sigh of relief, thank god…

However, now that we were on the ground, how exactly we were going to get away from Bellatrix alive was another matter to which I didn't quite know the answer yet.

Before any of us could do anything though, another enraged shriek filled the hall.

'HOW DARE YOU! GET AWAY FROM MY SON, YOU BITCH!' I looked up, my eyes widening at the woman running this way, completely dressed in black, her wand clenched in her right hand, looking at Bellatrix with a look which could scare the wits out of even Voldemort. Her motherly instinct must've kicked in when she saw her niece trying to murder her son, and it would've worked as well, hadn't I pulled him down.

Turning to look at Sirius, I found him looking completely flabbergasted, not believing his eyes as his mother started dueling Bellatrix. I had to hand it to Mrs. Black, she was a damn good dueler…

Deciding that lying on the ground while there were duels going on all around us wasn't a good idea, I pushed myself up, helping Sirius as well, who was still in a daze, staring at his cousin and mother.

'Hey Sirius! You okay mate?' James asked running over to us.

'Bellatrix… my mother…' He didn't seem able to get out a complete sentence, the surprise seemed to have caused a mental damage.

'I know mate, she looks furious, and I'd thought she'd looked angry when a Death Eater tried to attack Regulus from behind…'

'Is he okay?' I interjected, looking around for Regulus and Lily.

'He's just fine, don't worry, did you get the… you know?' I nodded.

'Yeah, it's gone, now only Voldemort remains.'

'Good.' We didn't get much more time to talk though as a Death Eater ran towards us, aiming a killing curse at James, but missed and hit the Death Eater Hestia Jones was fighting instead.

I turned around and started making my way through the crowd, minding to stay away from where I could see Voldemort was, I had to find Regulus.

I was, however, stopped when a loud shout was heard from behind me.

'Avada Kedavra!' I had the time to look back, my eyes widening as I caught a glimpse of Lucius Malfoy, right before someone pushed me to the ground, making everything go black.


	12. The end

The first thing I realized as I slowly slipped back into consciousness, was that my head hurt.

No, let me rephrase that, my head didn't simply hurt, it felt like I'd had a troll stomp on it continuously for hours. What the bloody hell had happened?

I groaned as I was hit by another horrid headache.

Had I gotten drunk, or what? My head hadn't hurt like that since-

My internal ramblings stopped as yesterday's events returned to me, right, the battle at Hogwarts, fighting that Crouch creep and… Lucius Malfoy.

Taking a deep breath I forced myself to open my eyes, but I was instantly blinded by a bright light. Cursing, I squeezed my eyes shut again, this time taking some time to reopen them slowly.

'Am I dead?' I murmured after a while.

'Of course not dear. You merely passed out.' A voice came from my right. Huh? Blinking I pushed myself up, taking a look around.

There was light seeping in through the open windows, it was morning already. How long had I been out?

As I sat up straight, I came to realize that, actually, I'd been lying on a bed… and there were many more beds on my right and left as well as opposite of me.

I turned to the woman next to me, who was at the moment tending a girl's broken arm. She had brown hair and was wearing casual black robes, she looked exhausted as if she had been working all night, which, I realized, she probably had.

'Where am I?' I asked though I already had a pretty good idea as of where I was. The woman didn't look up as she told the girl, Alisha, she'd be needing a potion for her arm.

She shouted at another woman to bring her something, "skele-gro" I think she called it, before turning to me as her collogue took over Alisha.

'The hospital wing, dear.' She answered my previous question as she examined my head. I sat in silence for a while, letting her do her job. 'Everything seems to be in order.' She finally said smiling down at me. 'You should thank Miss Evans for her exceptional healing charms… oh, but it's Potter now, isn't it?' Shaking her head she moved away from me and over to a man lying at the other side of the room.

Frowning I looked around me, there was no one here I knew, so where were they? And what had happened to-

'Excuse me.' I took a hold of the nurse's sleeve before she could leave Alisha. The girl turned to look at me.

'Is something wrong?' She asked turning to look at me. 'I believe we still have a potion against pain, should you want one…'

'Oh, er, no, I was just… wondering…' I paused for a second before going on. 'I seem to have been stunned or something-'

'You hit your head, actually.' The girl said kindly, interrupting me.

'Yes, whatever, what I actually want to know is… what happened? I mean, is Vol- er, you-know-who-' The nurse smiled, cutting me off once again.

'Don't worry. He's finally gone.' She said. 'You should rest for a bit more, you were with Sirius and his brother right? They should be waiting in the Great Hall along with everyone else. Now, if you'll excuse me…' With that she left to go help a witch that seemed to have broken her leg or something.

Completely ignoring the girl's advice (why the hell stay here when I was feeling perfectly fine and knew where the others were?) I jumped off the bed and stretched.

I reached insiode my pockets for my wand, stopping when I didn't find it, if I was holding it when I passed out, it must've fallen, but where?

Scratching my head (an act I regretted as pain suddenly shot through me again) I thought of where I had last been, in the Great Hall, I concluded, searching for Regulus.

Nodding I turned around, okay, off to find my way back to the Great Hall.

Now, that was easier said than done as I couldn't remember on which floor the hospital wing was, meaning, I didn't know on which floor I was.

Sighing I looked around, hoping to see anyone I could ask for directions. Filch was close by but he kept giving me those dark looks, so I preferred not to ask him and trust my instincts instead.

I felt oddly wary without my wand, even if the girl had informed me that Voldemort was gone, I couldn't help but think I'd feel safer with my wand rather than without it. It was weird how having that little stick with me could make such a big difference to my confidence.

I passed by Peeves thrice but didn't ask him for directions, I wasn't in the mood to be lead to the astronomy tower and locked inside wandless. And from what I'd read of Peeves, it sounded like something he'd do.

I tried to ask a ghost, but the Bloody Baron just grunted before turning around, and Moaning Myrtle burst out crying when I accidentally let slip that she was dead.

So my search for the Great Hall wasn't going all too well, and only when I met McGonagall while wandering around in the hope of finding the Hall at random, did she point me in the right direction, which was in the opposite of the one I'd been going up until now.

When I finally got to my destination (half an hour later), I was relieved to open the door and not be greeted by another empty classroom for a change. As great as the castle was, walking around like this was tiresome.

I glanced around, looking for anyone I knew, all the tables had been pushed together and it seemed like many people had spent the night at Hogwarts. Many of them were now seated at the tables, talking with their friends and family.

Finding two black heads in this crowd was not easy, spotting a red head, however, was.

I smiled as I caught sight of the group discussing at the end of the table, Lily was sitting with James, his arm around her shoulder as Regulus and Remus sat opposite of them, eating breakfast.

Thank god, they were all alright.

Breaking into a run, I hurried over to the group, their faces brightening upon seeing me advancing.

'Nora…!' Lily exclaimed jumping up and hugging me. 'Thank Merlin you're alright…' She let go off me and pulled me with her back to the table.

'Hey guys…'

'How are you feeling?' Regulus asked as I seated myself next to Lily. I shrugged, offering a simple "fine" as a response.

'What happened though?' I asked putting some of the delicious-looking food into the plate that had just appeared before me, I was absolutely starving. 'I really can't remember… the nurse said, she said Voldemort's gone.'

Regulus nodded, having grown used to me saying his name by now. He smiled.

'We did it. Well, we didn't kill him, mind you, but we _did_ make him mortal.' I nodded but then stopped and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

'But who…?'

The group exchanged a look, glancing at a figure that was sitting away from all the others.

'Severus did…' Lily said in a low tone. My eyes widened and I dropped the fork I was holding, looking at her disbelievingly.

'_Snape_?' I hissed, refusing to believe what my ears had heard. Regulus nodded, pulling his thoughts together before he started to talk.

'Well… after you ran off…' He started, pausing to drink a bit of his pumpkin juice. 'Lucius followed you, I saw him raise his wand, and, I kind of acted on instinct, pushed you out of the way… sorry about your head by the way.' He smiled sheepishly. Rolling my eyes, I told him it was fine urging the 18-year-old to get on with the story. Nodding, he did. 'So anyway, James helped me get you away from the battlefield.'

'Yes, and that's when we ran into Moony.' James interrupted 'Show her what we caught, Remus.' He added towards the werewolf, who took something from under the table and placed it on top of it.

I stared at it, looking from the rat inside the cage to the three marauders and back to the rat.

'Is that-'

'Pettigrew, yes.' Regulus nodded in affirmation. 'He was trying to flee the battle, but Remus had seen him, that was why we couldn't find him earlier, he was chasing the rat.'

'So… what are you going to do with him…?' I finally asked turning to the three marauders. 'I mean, you can't keep him in a cage forever, can you?'

'No, he'll be going to Azkaban.' Sirius said, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. 'We just have to clear out the illegal animagi thing with Dumbledore first…' The marauders and Lily fell silent, their thoughts on the traitor, biting my lip, I quickly changed the subject.

'So anyway, what happened next? I still don't get what Snape has to do with any of this…'

'Right, Snape.' Sirius sighed. 'So the three of them weren't there and you were unconscious, which left only Lily and I. I was fighting Barty Crouch's son when it happened.'

"_What happened?" _I wanted to snap at him, but knowing better than to shout out like that, no matter how much the suspense was killing me, I stayed silent and waited for someone to go on.

'I had just stunned Evan Rosier, I think…' Lily said, making me turn to her. 'I don't really know why, but Voldemort turned to me then, Sirius was dueling and no one else was around.' I watched the redhead intently, my eyes wide, trying to figure out how on earth she had survived. 'He'd have killed me, I'm sure, but that was when Severus stepped in. He must've let his guard down that second, I don't know, either way he killed him…'

I watched Lily for a while, was she saying that _Snape_ had killed Voldemort, the master he'd pledged eternal servitude to (he hadn't betrayed him yet) to protect Lily? That was completely-

I paused, remembering that one chapter in the Deathly Hallows my best friend always liked talking about, _the Prince's tale_, and I realized that it made actually sense.

He'd loved Lily enough to turn against Voldemort in the books, why not now too? After all, if he really _did_ love her, he'd have chosen Voldemort's death over Lily's anytime. And, in the end, he did.

I glanced at the young man sitting at the end of the table before quickly looking away again, not wanting him to catch me looking.

I didn't know what to say of it, of all people I'd thought stood a chance to defeat Voldemort, I had to admit that Snape never was one of them, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind.

Biting my lip I looked around, trying to think of something to take my mind of everything that had happened.

'So… uh… does any of you know where my wand is?' I asked the first thing that came to my mind.

'Oh.' Regulus looked up, as if he'd only remembered about my wand now. 'Er… it should be somewhere by that staircase.' I nodded and got up, might as well get it back now. 'I'll help you look.' Regulus said quickly, getting up as well.

Lilly wove at us, smiling a little before turning back to James.

Walking down the stairs, I looked around for my wand, I'd fallen over there, so it was quite possible it had rolled down.

Honestly… what a bother… the worst part of it though, was when I actually stepped on the damned thing and almost rolled down the stairs. Groaning, I picked the wand up, glaring at it.

'I found it.' I called out to Regulus, though, as I realized the next moment, I hadn't needed to, for he was already standing next to me.

I opened my mouth to say something but I was cut off by Regulus pushing me against the wall, not roughly or anything, quite the opposite actually, he was gentle and careful about it.

I felt my heart rate speed up as he slowly leaned in closer. I knew I was surely blushing like crazy as I stared into his grey eyes, his lips brushing against mine before he kissed me.

It was a soft, gentle kiss and it didn't take me long to kiss back, wrapping my arms around Regulus' neck.

All too soon, we pulled away, our need to breathe taking over. Right when I was experiencing the best kiss I'd ever received too… stupid lungs.

Turning to Regulus, I saw him smiling down at me. It made the wonderful feeling inside my stomach explode, like it always did when he smiled a real smile.

'I love you, Nora.' He whispered and I couldn't help but smile as well.

'I love you too.' I whispered, leaning in to kiss him again.


	13. Fourteen years later

**September 1st**** 1994**

We must've been quite a sight as we entered King's Cross that morning at quarter to eleven, two parents, each pulling a trunk along, followed by two small boys, one holding a tawny owl in a cage, the second carrying a tabby cat.

Though it was the boys that were going to go to Hogwarts, I couldn't help but fret more than anyone, checking and double-checking if they had packed everything, making sure nothing stayed behind, after all, it'd be their first time away from home for that long.

'You did take your toothbrush with you after brushing your teeth this morning, didn't you, Leo?' I asked, interrupting the 11-year-olds' argument about which the best quidditch team was for the umpteenth time today.

Letting out an annoyed sigh the black haired boy turned to look at me.

'Yes mum.' He said, irritation starting to show through, out of the two, Leo had always had the shortest temper.

'Good, good. And Orion, you didn't forget to pack your wand, did you? It was on the dining table last night…'

Orion rolled his eyes at his brother before assuring me that he had not forgotten his wand on the dining table and that it was, in fact, safely inside his trunk.

Nodding, I turned back in front of me, letting them go on with their argument until I found something else to worry about. Slowing down a bit so he was walking alongside me, Regulus slid an arm around my waist.

'Calm down Nora.' He whispered. 'They're going to be fine, and if they happen to have forgotten something, we'll owl it to them once we get home.' I nodded, letting out a sigh.

'I know…' I whispered. 'But I can't help it.'

We came to a stop as we reached the barrier between platforms nine and ten. I was starting to hyperventilate by now.

What if Orion caught a cold? He had always been rather prone to illness. Or what if he fell into the Black lake? Or if Leo tried to experiment with potions, or-

'Nora, just relax.' Regulus said putting his hand on my shoulder. Taking a deep breath I nodded, right, yes, I had to relax.

'We'll go find aunt Lily, alright?' Leo, the eldest of the two by five minutes, said turning to us.

I nodded and watched them disappear behind the barrier.

Exchanging a look, we quickly followed.

The platform was filled with witches and wizards, which made it somewhat harder to spot the two little boys. Nudging me, Regulus nodded at a family of three. I smiled and turned to wave at them.

'Nora…! Regulus!' Lily exclaimed as James grinned, nodding our way before going on telling Harry and the twins whatever he'd been talking about before Reg and I came. The awe and mischievous glint in their eyes told me it was nothing good and I doubted I'd want to find out exactly what they were planning either.

'Sirius isn't here yet?' I asked looking around, he always came to wave off Harry and he'd promised Orion he'd be there to wave the twins off as well this year.

'Of course I'm here.' A voice suddenly interrupted my train of thought. I turned around, startled to find the black haired wizard standing behind me, a little girl following closely behind.

'God, do you want to give me a heart attack, or what?' I sighed and shook my head before turning to the black haired nine-year-old that stood next to her dad. 'Hi there Sarah.'

'Hello auntie Nora!' The girl said happily, turning to smile at me. 'Hi uncle Reg!'

Regulus turned to his niece, smiling, and they soon were off talking about the quidditch world cup that had taken place in Britain this year, which we'd all gone to, of course. With everyone but Lilly, Remus and I being quidditch fanatics, how couldn't we? They'd burn us at the stake were we to refuse.

'Mum?' I felt a tug at my sleeve.

'Hmm? What is it Leo?' I asked turning to my son who was now done talking to James and Lily. Orion stood next to him, holding his cat, Martin (inspired from the _adventures Martin Miggs, the mad muggle_) and looking around the platform for anyone he might know.

'Can we get on the train already?' Glancing at the time, I nodded, they still had to find a compartment after all.

'Sure. See you at Christmas…' I said hugging both boys, already having decided to make it the best Christmas ever, after all, it'd be four months until we saw them again. 'Write to tell us the outcome of the sorting, okay?'

'Mum…!' Leo protested. 'You already _know_ we're going to get in Slytherin, right Orion?' His twin quickly nodded and I couldn't help but chuckle.

'You never know.' Regulus said ruffling the boys' hair. 'And you know we won't mind if you get sorted into another house, right?'

At this Orion looked around, biting his lip before turning to his dad and asking in a whisper,

_'Even if we get in Hufflepuff_?' Regulus chuckled and rolled his eyes at the question, Orion looked like it had been bothering him for a while.

'Even if you get in Hufflepuff.' He assured his son, smiling. 'There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff anyway, Dora was in Hufflepuff, remember?'

'Besides,' I interjected, smiling at the youngest of the two boys 'you're more fit for Ravenclaw…' Seeming somewhat reassured now, Orion nodded. 'Anyway, owl us, okay? And write to grandma once in a while, she'll like that. Don't forget to brush your teeth every night, and don't eat too many sweets, also, make sure you're wearing a cloak when you go outside and-'

'Nora.' Regulus interrupted me. 'You're doing it again.'

I paused, realizing he was right, I was fretting again, like I had all morning. I turned to look at the twins apologetically.

'I'm sorry… I'm just a bit stressed.'

'You don't need to worry that much.' James said as he wove at Harry, who was already sitting inside the Hogwarts express with Ron and Hermione. 'They're going to be fine.'

'After all, we turned out alright, didn't we?' I gave Sirius a pointed look, clearly stating that that wasn't a reassuring thought.

'Right, well, have fun, alright?' Regulus said kneeling down in front of the boys and hugging them. 'Don't give Remus and the other professors too much of a hard time, and try to avoid detention while you're at it.'

'Don't worry dad.' Leo grinned. 'Harry has told us all kinds of secret passages and stuff, we'll never be caught.'

I rolled my eyes, of course, and even if Harry hadn't, Sirius would've… I couldn't help but smile though, to tell the truth, I'd always thought Leo was more of a Gryffindor rather than Slytherin. He'd always found the house cool since Regulus had told him all those stories about his days at Hogwarts, and though both Sirius and James told tales of their days in Gryffindor, he was never as excited as when someone talked to him about Slytherin. I had no doubt he'd threaten to burn the hat if it as much as thought of putting him in a different house.

'No sneaking out to Hogsmeade without escort though.' At that, turned to look at Regulus, having snapped out of my thoughts about the sorting. What kind of advise was that?

I didn't bother mentioning that, in fact, only third-years and above were allowed into Hogsmeade, if they really wanted, the twins would find a way. I'd just be wasting my breath and annoying Leo.

'Right, well, you two better get on, the train should be leaving soon…' I said glancing at the time.

Grinning, Leo took his trunk and wove at us before running off to go find a compartment, Orion lingered behind a few seconds longer, but eventually followed his brother.

Regulus wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I smiled softly, waving as the train disappeared around the corner, taking my sons with it.

I sighed, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear.

They were going to be just fine. I was sure.


End file.
